The journal. (Caldwell, Ohio) 1934-1961, 1950-05-25
BY cONGR RESsiNAN
Bob Sccrcst
APPROPRIATION A


which is. a part of the executive
branch of the government, rec
ommends to congress the amount
the President thinks should be
spent for all federal activities
during the next fiscal year. Pre-
paration of this budget requires
many months. Every agency of
the government prepares a re-
quest which is submitted to the
budget bureau. These are care
fully checked by the bureau
and many reductions are made
before the budget is submitted to
congress.
When the budget is received by
congress, the appropriations COM
mittee of the House divides in to
subcommittee before whom re-
representatives. of all the agencies
appear to give testimony in sup
port of the money they have re-
que d. Each subcommittee
makes its report and recommen-
dations to the full appropriations
committee at which time the an
nual- appropriations for the fed
eral government are prepared in
the form of a bill and submitted
to the House for action. @E
This year the bill was divided
in to eleven chapters as follows:
(D District of Columbia, (2) leg
islative branch, (3), state, justice,
commerce and judiciary, (4)
treasury and post office (5) labor
and federal security, (6), agricul-
ture department, CD interior de-
partment (8) independent offices,
which includes the veterans ad-
ministration, civil service COM
mission and many other indepen-
dent agencies, 90 civil functions
of the army, which includes ap-
preparations for flood control,
rivers and harbors and the Pana-
ma canal, (10) national defense
department appropriations which
includes the air force, army and
navy. Chapter II contains gen.
eral provisions to limit the man.
ner appropriated money can be
spent. Each chapter was con-
sidered separately by the House
for debate and amendment. In
former years each chapter would
nave been voted upon separately.
This year all were combined in
to one bill which, in my opinion,
was a mistake. A member of con-
gress was put in the position of
voting for some things to which
he might be opposed if he voted
for the bill. If he voted against
the bill as a whole, he was vot-
ing against the veterans admins
tration and all defense appropria-
tions. AS a result there were only
votes cast against the
The bill as it passed the House
was one billion, seven hundred
and eighteen million dollars less
than the budget bureau had rec
commended. An amendment was
adopted to the bill which di-
rected the federal agencies to fill
only ten per cent of the positions
that become vacant in the fiscal
year 1851. Each year about two
hundred and fifty thousand en-
ployees of the federal govern
ment resign, die or retire. If this
amendment is approved by the
senate, the total number of fed
eral employees would drop from
a present figure of one million,
nine hundred and fifty thousand
to one million, seven hundred
and twenty-five thousand by
July, 1851.
The bill will now 60 to the
senate where hearings have been
held just as they were in the
House. 1t will probably be eight
or ten weeks before the Senate
completes action and the differ
ences between the House and
Senate have been compromised
in conference. Until final action
on the conference report it will
be impossible to predict what the
final appropriations for the var
ious branches of the government
will be.
Included in the bill as it passed
the House was one million dol
lars for the Dillon dam and suf-
ficient money to pay flood taxes