Evening star., 1946-04-02
|AgenciesP Plan
'ConstructionCut
AS Housing Aid
Meeting Tomorrow
| To Form Unit for
Screening Projects

Proposed cuts in the type of Fed
eral construction which would in
terfere with the veterans housing
program were being whipped into
final shape today preparatory to q
meeting tomorrow of representatives
from severn major Government
agencies to form a Construction Co.
ordinating Committee which will
screen building projects under the
supervision of the Civilian Produce
ton Administration.
The meeting was called yesterday
by Civilian Production Administra-
tor j. D. Small at the request of
Housing Expediter Wilson W. Wyatt
and John w. Snyder, director of the
Office of War Mobilization and Re-
conversion. Agencies which have
been asked to send staff members to
take part are the War, Navy, Inte-
rior, Commerce and Agriculture De-
partments the Federal Works
Agency and the Veterans Admins
| tration.
1t is expected the committee will
function primarily not to revise tho
Governments construction program
but to act as screen for borderlins
construction projects.
Schedules Worked Out.
Basic changes in Government
construction schedules already have
been worked out by the Interdepart-
mental Committee on Construction,
headed by Maj. Gen. Philip B. Flem-
ing, Federal works administrator.
Basic policy of this committee, as
announced in mid-February, was to
defer Federal construction which
would compete with housing and to
expedite housing, sewer and water,
educational and hospital projects.
| Under this policy, FWA experts
have already conferred with other
agencies and their own construction
chiefs and have revised 1916 plans
for Federal Construction as follows:
| Total expenditures actually are
now expected to rise from an esti-
mate of 81 900 100000, made last De-
cember, to present estimate OF
ST $3.50 900 00O
Roughly speaking, estimates for
public housing, education, hospitals
and sewer and water projects have
been increased, while those for mill
tary and naval projects, highways,
investment buildings, conservation
projects and airports have been re-
duced
Present estimate for educational
structures is sl60,000,o00 as against
sl05 100000 in December; for hos
pitals, SITS 100000 as against sl4o,-
100000: public housing, s315, 900 900
as against S115,ooO,0 900, and sewer
and water projects, s275, ,ooo, 900 as
against s175,0o0.
Highway Expenditures Cut.
i Highway expenditures are now ex-
pected to be reduced from $7oo, ,Oo0,-
900 to S550,000,000, military indus
trial projects from s6o,e0o 900 to
: s5o0oo,0O, other military and naval
construction from s130,oO0,0Oo to
s10O,000,00O; conservation projects
from s275, ,0Oo, 900 to s225 900 900, air
ports from s75.O0o,O0o to s25, 900 900
and other Federal building projects
from s5ooooooo to $4,000, 900.
Actually Congress determined
FWA's Federal buildings program
when it pigeonholed the Public
Buildings Administrators long
range building program of nearly
billion dollars, which includes
nearly s200000,O00 worth of Federal
building construction in the Wash
ington area over a period of years.
OF all PBA projects slated for
Washington, completion of the west
central heating plant at Rock
+, Creek and K street is the only one
!, which has been finally approved.
Even this must go before congress
sional appropriations committees
before money authorized in stop
gap public buildings legislation can
be spent. Plans last fall called for
new buildings within five to ten
years, for the Navy, Army, Interior
Department, State Department,
Treasury Department, Library of
Congress, National Archives, Smith
!, sonian Institution, Washington Zoo.
Bureau of Standards and Public
f Buildings Administration, plus a
$40 100000 general Office building.