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It is a well-established rule of construction that the word "hereafter" when used in a statute relates to the date of approval of the act unless a different intent is indicated by other provisions of the act or by facts or conditions with reference to which the legislation in question was enacted.

With reference to the provision now under consideration, apparently the only doubt as to whether the usual rule is applicable would be relative to the matter of appropriations. It is noted that the act does not appropriate a specific amount for payment of the salaries, compensation, or wages to be paid to these apprentices, but it does make a lump-sum appropriation expressly available, among other things, "for salaries, compensation, or wages of all necessary employees additional to those herein specifically appropriated for." A like appropriation available for the same purpose was made in the annual appropriation act for the current fiscal year, 42 Stat., 435. Said appropriation would appear to be available for such apprentices as legally may be employed during the current fiscal year, and in accordance with the rule hereinbefore stated I have to advise that the provision in question became effective February 20, 1923, and authorizes the employment during the remainder of the current fiscal year of such apprentices (not to exceed 200 at any one time) as in your judgment will be consistent with the economical service of the Government Printing Office.

TEMPORARY BUILDINGS FOR NATIONAL LEPER HOME.

The appropriations made by the acts of February 20, and March 4, 1923, 42 Stat., 1264, 1550, for additional “suitable buildings " for the National Leper Home at Carville, Louisiana, may be used for the erection of temporary buildings when determined by the Secretary of the Treasury to be suitable for the purposes of that institution.

Comptroller General McCarl to the Secretary of the Treasury, April 9, 1923: I have your letter of March 26, 1923, requesting decision whether the appropriations for erection of additional suitable buildings for the National Leper Home at Carville, La., made in the acts of February 20, 1923, 42 Stat., 1264, and March 4, 1923, 42 Stat., 1550, are available for temporary structures.

The Public Health Service has reported as urgent the need of temporary structures for storehouses and quarters pending such time as permanent buildings may be completed, and has received bids on material for the construction of the temporary buildings.

Act of February 20, 1923, is as follows:

That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby, authorized and directed to cause to be erected additional suitable buildings for the National Leper Home, at Carville, Louisiana, at a limit of cost not to exceed the sum of

$650,000, which sum is hereby authorized to be appropriated out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated.

Act of March 4, 1923, is as follows:

National Leper Home, Carville, Louisiana: For the erection of additional suitable buildings in accordance with the authority contained in the Act approved February 20, 1923 (Public, Numbered 430, Sixty-seventh Congress), $500,000, and in addition the Secretary of the Treasury may incur obligations for the foregoing purposes in amounts not exceeding $145,000.

In view of the large amounts appropriated, Congress undoubtedly had in contemplation more particularly the erection of buildings of permanent and substantial character for the purpose of maintaining and developing the home for proper care of lepers at Carville, La., but the only qualifying condition in the statutes, relative to the buildings to be erected, is that they shall be "suitable."

This home was authorized to be established by the act of February 3, 1917, 39 Stat., 872, and placed under control of the Surgeon General and the Secretary of the Treasury. Suitability of the buildings for the purposes outlined in this original act and as directed in the act of February 20, 1923, is for determination finally by the Secretary of the Treasury and if, under the discretion given him, he finds an urgent need exists for these temporary structures which will best serve the purpose of the home, I believe the appropriations for "erection of suitable buildings" in both of the acts in question are available, as there exists no general or special statutory prohibition to prevent such use.

The question is answered accordingly.

GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES AS

WITNESSES-APPROPRIATIONS

AVAILABLE FOR TRAVELING EXPENSES.

Government employees attending in their official capacity the examination or trial of persons charged with violations of certain laws relating to the work of their department or establishment, such attendance being in connection with their official duties, are entitled to their traveling expenses payable from the applicable appropriation of their particular department or establishment; if the attendance of Government employees subpoenaed as witnesses is not connected with their official duties their expenses are payable from the judiciary appropriation, “Fees of witnesses, United States courts." Comptroller General McCarl to R. A. Harvin, United States marshal, April 9, 1923:

There was received your letter of March 24, 1923, as follows:

I have before me the matter of the payment to certain employees of the Immigration Service, Department of Labor, of actual expenses for the attendance upon United States district court at Brownsville, Texas, during the December term, 1922.

I have positively declined to pay the accounts of John R. Peavey, Robert Domanski, and Jesse Perez, jr., immigration officers, and stated my reason for not paying the said accounts that this matter has been the source of great

disturbance In the settlement of my prior accounts wherein I did pay similar items, which were suspended but afterwards allowed under my claim for protection under sec. 846, R. S., U. S. The matter has caused a great deal of correspondence between the Immigration Service and the Customs Service, to whom I referred the inspector in charge at Brownsville, as it was presumed that these witnesses testified in customs cases.

I have carried out the ruling laid down by you in suspensions to my previous acounts to the letter. Before I cause payment to be made of a similar account I desire first to submit the matter at hand for a final ruling-such ruling involving the question of whether an immigration officer, subpoenaed to attend court in cases generally, shall be paid by his own Department of Labor, or by the marshal from his appropriation.

I am enclosing all correspondence and papers relating to the matter in question. I shall appreciate the return of the enclosed when same have served their purpose. I shall be very pleased to have this matter finally decided in order that all similar items arising in the future can be disposed of without delay. The officers should be paid by some Department and have waited considerably for payment. I am very anxious to have the matter closed and shall appreciate an early ruling.

The question presented by you is one that has been considered a number of times by the Comptroller of the Treasury and the wellestablished rule which should govern is clearly set forth in 15 Comp. Dec., 298, as follows:

If the particular officer attends in his official capacity in connection with the examination or trial of persons charged with violations of certain laws relating to the work of his department, and it is his duty under the laws or regulations governing his appointment to aid in the prevention, detection, suppression, punishment, or prosecution of such violations or offenses, then his actual traveling expenses, within the proper departmental limitations, incurred by reason of his attendance upon such examination or trial, are properly chargeable to the appropriation out of which his ordinary traveling expenses are usually paid, notwithstanding the fact that he may be called and testify in the case as a witness. In such case his presence as a witness is merely incidental to the real purpose of his attendance, and he may properly be regarded as present in his official character, and while so traveling he should render his account covering his expenses to the department by whom he is employed.

On the other hand, when a salaried government employee is subpoenaed as a witness, and so attends, otherwise than as above stated, he is entitled to reimbursement of his actual expenses (section 850, Revised Statutes) by the marshal from the appropriation "Fees of witnesses, United States courts." * See also 4 Comp. Dec., 649; 5 id., 2; 14 id., 80; id., 516; 15 id., 154; 16 id., 411; and 27 id., 1039.

It will be noted that the immigration inspectors were subpoenaed to appear before the court at Brownsville, Tex., in cases of persons charged with violations of the customs and prohibition laws, and not in cases for or on behalf of the Immigration Service. The inspector in charge of immigration at San Antonio, in a letter to you under date of March 19, 1923, explained that it is not the duty of the Immigration Service employees under their appointments or oaths of office to investigate facts upon which the proceedings were based, or to appear in their official capacity to testify in such cases.

From the evidence submitted payment may be made by you from the appropriation "Fees of witnesses, United States courts, 1923,” if otherwise found to be correct.

PRINTING AND BINDING-ANNUAL REPORT OF FEDERAL FARM LOAN BOARD.

The cost of illustrations, composition, stereotyping, and other work involved in the actual preparation for printing, apart from the creation of the manuscript of the annual report of the Federal Farm Loan Board required to be made to Congress by the act of July 17, 1916, 39 Stat., 361, and printed for the information of Congress, is required by the act of March 30, 1906, 34 Stat., 825, to be charged to the appropriation for printing and binding for the Treasury Department.

Comptroller General McCarl to the Secretary of the Treasury, April 9, 1923: I have your letter of April 3, 1923, requesting decision as to whether the bill of the Public Printer, details and amount of bill not given, for composition, etc., on House Document No. 560, Sixtyseventh Congress, fourth session, which is the annual report of the Federal Farm Loan Board made in accordance with the requirements of the Federal farm loan act, 39 Stat., 361, is properly chargeable under the appropriation, not named, but presumably the one under the caption "Division of Printing and Stationery," 42 Stat., 372:

For printing and binding for the Treasury Department, including printing required by the Federal farm loan act, $500,000.

Of the printing required by the Federal farm loan act, 39 Stat., 361, is the following:

The Federal Farm Loan Board shall annually make a full report of its operations to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, who shall cause the same to be printed for the information of the Congress.

The act of March 30, 1906, 34 Stat., 825, provides:

That hereafter, in the printing and binding of documents or reports emanating from the Executive Departments, bureaus, and independent offices of the Government, the cost of which is now charged to the allotment for printing and binding for Congress, or to the appropriations or allotments of appropriations other than those made to the Executive Departments, bureaus, or independent offices of the Government, the cost of illustrations, composition, stereotyping and other work involved in the actual preparation for printing, apart from the creation of manuscript, shall be charged to the appropriation or allotment of appropriation for the printing and binding of the Department, bureau, or independent office of the Government in which such documents or reports originate; the balance of cost shall be charged to the allotment for printing and binding for Congress, and to the appropriation or allotment of appropriation of the Executive Department, bureau, or independent office of the Government, in proportion to the number delivered to each; the cost of any copies of such documents or reports distributed otherwise than through Congress, or the Executive Departments, bureaus, and independent offices of the Government, if such there be, shall be charged as heretofore: Provided, That on or before the first day of December in each fiscal year each Executive Department, bureau, or independent office of the Government to which an appropriation or allotment of appropriation for printing and binding is made, shall obtain from the Public Printer an estimate of the probable cost of all publications of such Department, bureau, or independent office now required by law to be printed, and so much thereof as would, under the terms of this resolution, be charged to the appropriation or allotment of appropriation of the Department, bureau, or independent office of the Government in which such publications originate, shall thereupon be set aside to be applied only to the printing and binding of such documents and reports, and shall not be

available for any other purpose until all of such allotment of cost on account of such documents and reports shall have been fully paid.

This resolution shall be effective on and after July first, nineteen hundred and six.

On the assumption that the costs billed by the Public Printer were otherwise and properly fiscal year 1923 items, and were, within the terms of the act of March 30, 1906, for not other than "the cost of illustrations, composition, stereotyping, and other work involved in the actual preparation for printing, apart from the creation of manuscript," it would appear that they are properly chargeable under the appropriation for "Printing and binding for the Treasury Department, 1923," 42 Stat., 372, and the decision is accordingly.

VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION-TEMPORARY CONSTRUCTION WORK.

The responsibility for the proper and lawful use of materials purchased for vocational training courses being upon the Veterans' Bureau, payment for material in reasonable quantities used in the erection of temporary structures will be allowed when represented as essential to carry out courses of Vocational training.

Comptroller General McCarl to the Director, United States Veterans' Bureau, April 10, 1923:

I have your letter of March 8, 1923, received in this office March 14, 1923, requesting reconsideration of the decision of this office of January 22, 1923, to the effect that the provision attached to the appropriation for expenses of vocational rehabilitation that no part of the appropriation shall be expended for construction work, except necessary repairs, prevents the use of that appropriation for purchase of material for construction of such temporary structures as poultry houses, cow barns, and similar buildings.

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You now cite those provisions of the general vocational rehabilitation laws and appropriations empowering and directing the bureau to furnish suitable courses of vocational rehabilitation to those persons entitled to the same, and to provide such facilities and courses as may be necessary to insure proper training. You suggest the difficulty in carrying out courses of training, especially in carpentry, without having the trainee engage in construction work, and represent that the objective in the proposed construction work is the training of the vocational trainee and not acquisition of the buildings.

Payment for material in reasonable quantities upon your representation that it is essential to the carrying out of courses of vocational training will be passed for credit by this office. Responsibility for the proper and lawful use of such material is upon the Veterans' Bureau.

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