objection, we will ask him to let us meet in executive session for just a few moments at the conclusion of this hearing this morning. Mr. McGREGOR. That is all the questions I have, Mr. Chairman. Mr. PICKETT. Yes; I would like to ask the general a question or two. In connection with your statement in reference to the over-all floodcontrol program, General, I refer you to page 3, at the top, where you delineate the particular status of the program in summarized form. You state here that complete or essentially complete, there is a number of projects totaling 256, that there is under construction a number of projects totaling 223, and not yet started a number totaling 512. Now of those 512 projects that are not yet started, are they all authorized or are some of them in the course of being studied and investigated, with a view of presenting to the Congress a report on the investigation? General PICK. They are authorized projects, sir. Mr. PICKETT. All authorized projects? General PICK. That is correct, sir. Mr. PICKETT. Then, in addition, you have a number of projects where by resolution of the proper committee in either House of the Congress you are studying various other proposed projects; is that correct? General PICK. That is correct, sir. Mr. PICKETT. Do you have the figure at this time of the total number of those projects that are now being studied? General PICK. We have resolutions calling for 350 reports, sir. Mr. PICKETT. That would be, then, a total of 1,341 projects that fall in the several categories mentioned. General PICK. Yes, sir; it would be about that. Mr. PICKETT. What is the estimated total cost, if you can give us the figure, of the 350 projects that are now being investigated? General PICK. I can't give you that, sir. Mr. PICKETT. There is no way to give it because your investigation is not complete? General PICK. That is right, sir. Mr. PICKETT. In connection with your remarks in reference to the Mississippi River and tributaries, I wonder if you included the proposals on the Arkansas River and its tributaries, all of which are tributary to the Misssissippi? General PICK. No, sir. The Mississippi River includes projects along the main stream of the river and up the tributaries, to include the backwater area and in that twilight zone between the river, the tributary stream proper, and the Mississippi River. Mr. PICKETT. Then you do not have in contemplation in your remarks about the Mississippi any over-all or comprehensive plan on any of the major tributaries to the Mississippi River except as they might affect immediately the junction at the mouth of that river where it flows into the Mississippi? General PICK. Yes; that is correct, sir. The Arkansas River, which we were discussing the other day, is treated as a tributary stream and is not included in the alluvial valley. Mr. PICKETT. Now, then, in further reference to the questions Mr. Ford asked you a while ago, where you referred to monetary authorizations in Missouri River plan as $366,000,000 with a total cost of work completed and under construction as $757,000,000, I take it, General, that that $757,000,000 figure includes the cost of work already completed in that Missouri plan as well as work that is now General PICK. Completed and under construction, sir? Mr. PICKETT. Yes. General PICK. Yes, sir. Mr. PICKETT. Then the total of the work completed would be what in dollars and cents? General PICK. Mr. Pickett, we don't have that broken down here. We would be glad to break that down, sir. Mr. PICKETT. I take it that that $366,000,000 figure for monetary authorization does not include sums of money on projects that have already been completed? General PICK. Yes, sir; some of the work that is completed is included in that? Mr. PICKETT. I see; then it is a matter that can be ascertained just what the break-down is, but you didn't bring it in that form this morning; is that right? General PICK. No, sir. Mr. PICKETT. In connection with the Columbia River Basin, General-if you gave the figure, I overlooked it-what is the total estimated cost of the comprehensive plan that you have now drawn for that Columbia River Basin? General PICK. The main control plan as developed in the restudy of the 308 report amounts to $1,570,000,000. Mr. PICKETT. Now, then, some of that work has already been completed, I take it. General PICK. Some work in the basin has been completed. Mr. PICKETT. And some of the projects that are included in the comprehensive plan are already in operation, then? General PICK. That is correct, sir. Mr. PICKETT. Now that figure, then, of $1,500,000,000 plus is not included within your request that you make for additional riverbasin authorizations in the amount of $1,261,000,000, as given on page 10 of your statement, but that billion and a half must be in addition to that $1,261,000,000. General PICK. There is nothing for the Columbia Basin in that figure of $1,261,000,000, sir. Mr. PICKETT. Then, what would be the sum total of all pending requested authorizations, including the Columbia River Basin? General PICK. I don't have that broken down here so that I could give it to you right offhand, sir. We have in this $1.261,000,000, $100,000,000 for the Willamette River. Mr. PICKETT. Which would be part of the Columbia River Basin. General PICK. Which is part of the Columbia. There are some other projects in the Columbia Basin that have already been authorized, and work is now in progress on them. I don't have the figure here as to how much that is for the Columbia Basin, but I feel sure that there is a money authorization there, and I am not definitely sure but what some of those projects are not included in this $1,261,000,000. We can break that down for you, sir, and get the figure for the record. Mr. PICKETT. Then, in reference to the total figure for the national flood-control program, which you gave on page 3 as $7,500,000,000 in round figures, does that include the Columbia Basin proposal as well, or is the Columbia Basin going to be in addition to that? General PICK. That does not include the Columbia Basin, sir. Mr. PICKETT. In that $7,500,000,000 figure you have given, what other proposals are not included with it? General PICK. There is nothing in that figure for any project which is in the reports before this committee now for authorization. That includes all reports up to the last authorization bill, but it does not include the reports which have been prepared since the last authorization bill. Mr. PICKETT. Then, including the Columbia River Basin and the reports that are before the committee now, there would be a total in excess of two billon and a half-would there not-to be added to $7,500,000,000, to make a total pending and requested authorizations a sum in the neighborhood of ten billion. General PICK. That is just about right, sir. I don't have the figures here, though. Mr. PICKETT. Well, if I am found to be incorrect by the implication of that question, I hope you will correct it for the record, General. General PICK. Yes, sir. Mr. PICKETT. Thank you very much. Mr. CHESNEY. General, has the Corps of Engineers ever made a total survey of the damages that have occurred by floods? General PICK. Yes, sir. We make those surveys annually. Mr. CHESNEY. What is it up to the present date? Can you give us that figure? General PICK. You mean the total damage which has occurred from floods? How far back, sir? Mr. CHESNEY. Say the last 10 years. General PICK. Well, since the 1936 act? Mr. CHESNEY. Yes. General PICK. We can supply that. We make those surveys annually; yes, sir. I can tell you what has happened on the Missouri Basin for the last 2 or 3 years. Mr. CHESNEY. What amount of money has been saved due to floodcontrol projects since that period, say, 1936? General PICK. We would be glad to furnish that for the record, sir. Mr. MCDONOUGH. I think that is covered in the statement under "Accomplishments" on the third page, where he refers to damage valued in excess of $500,000,000. Mr. CHESNEY. I think it has been more than $500,000,000. Mr. LARCADE. Mr. Chairman, I might refer the gentleman to a recent article that I included in the Congressional Record which gives the damage from floods in eastern United States since 1856, if you would like to refer to that article. Mr. CHESNEY. Thank you, I will be glad to read it. I am interested in the whole United States, not the Midwest. Mr. LARCADE. My article deals principally with the Mississippi Valley. Mr. DAVIS. Are there any other questions? Mr. DONDERO. General Pick, in arriving at figures included in your statement, are you using present-day costs? General PICK. We are using 1948 costs, sir. Mr. DONDERO. In all of them? Mr. DONDERO. Is there any question in your mind that the estimates you have given this committee on these various projects thus far are ample to construct the projects, or does it mean that you are going to come back here later and say, "Well, we were way low; we have got to have considerable more money"? General PICK. The estimates that we give now, sir, based upon 1948 prices, I consider to be sound estimates of cost. It is true that in the last 4 or 5 years—well, since the war-we have been going before the committees for appropriations and we were obliged to say that this project had increased in cost, the cost of building the project has increased, because of the increase in prices. Many of these estimates were made for projects surveyed prior to the war. Those esimates have increased tremendously because of the increase in prices. Mr. DONDERO. You think that the figures you are now giving the committee we can depend on as covering the cost of the projects? General PICK. I am in hopes, sir, that they are entirely ample, and I am also in hopes that we could come back and say they didn't cost quite that much. Mr. DONDERO. I discussed this mater quite fully with your predecessor, General, and I had furnished me a list of the projects constructed by the Army engineers, who have always had a word of praise from me, that showed in many, many instances the projects not only cost the amount asked but double the amount, and the other day a good many of us were rather shocked to hear that the one dam on the Arkansas River had risen from $55,000,000 to $130,000,000. If that same ratio of increased cost should so far exceed your estimate, it wrecks the confidence of this committee in the figures that you give us, and I want something that not only the Army engineers can stand on but this committee can stand on. General PICK. That particular project, sir, is an entirely different project now from what it was when it was authorized. I understand that there has been quite a few changes in the area. Mr. DONDERO. Then, General Pick, might it not be a good policy, where changes are to be made on any project, that before construction is authorized the Army engineers should come back to the Congress of the United States, make a statement as to the changes, lay them before us and say whether or not they are justified before you begin to do the work or to proceed with the work? General PICK. We do that when we go back to the Appropriations Committee, sir. Mr. DONDERO. However, not before the authorization committee, which would be this one. General PICK. No; we haven't. On that particular project, there has been some railroad work across the reservoir area, and there have been some highways built across it, and I understand it is quite dif ferent now. Mr. DONDERO. Who brings about such changes, the Army engineers or the situation locally? General PICK. It is the situation locally that has brought about the changes. Mr. DONDERO. You mean that the local interests make requests which are different than those presented to the committee when the project is first authorized? General PICK. No, sir. On this particular project, a new railroad was built across there and at least one new high bridge across the stream, which were not there, as I understand it, when the report was made. Mr. DONDERO. And that was built after the committee authorized the project? General PICK. Yes, sir. Mr. DONDERO. The Government of the United States has got to pay for that work and must destroy it, the railroad bridge, and the railroad that was built after the project was authorized. That is about what it means. I am referring to this particular dam that we are talking about. General PICK. We are making a study now of that, sir. Mr. DONDERO. On that one project? General PICK. On that one project, sir. We expect to have the study completed sometime this fall. Mr. DONDERO. What I am trying to do, General Pick, is that we find some sound basis that is not going to reflect on the Corps of Army Engineers, this committee or the Congress, and it was very shocking to me, as one who does hold a very high regard for the Corps of Army Engineers, to read in public print that estimates have been made deliberately underestimating the cost. It is hard to believe that, and I am shocked to see it in public print. Mr. ANGELL. I may say, Mr. Chairman, that I don't believe it. Mr. DONDERO. I am going to keep an open mind on it. General PICK. Mr. Chairman, we do not deliberately make underestimates. Mr. DONDERO. I hope not. General PICK. The Corps of Engineers has no reason for making an underestimate on any project. The Corps of Engineers prides itself in trying to give to this committee the most factual information that is possible to obtain. We shall continue to do that. This particular project which Mr. Dondero is speaking of is already being restudied before these hearings came about, before I came to Washington. We are always glad to restudy projects, and we are always glad to work out the best solution for any project in order to take care of the desires of the local people and to produce the benefits which can be realized from a development. We do not want to build nor will we recommend to the committee projects which are not economically sound. Mr. DONDERO. General Pick, you can well understand what happens to the mind of the member of this committee when he gets a figure from you, as we did this morning, that the total amount, as brought out by the gentleman from Texas, is about $10,000,000,000 and then read in public print that the estimate should be nearer $57,000,000,000. Something is wrong somewhere. Mr. MCDONOUGH. That included reclamation. Mr. DONDERO. Yes; I appreciate that. Mr. McGREGOR. General, getting back to the statement that you made relative to a change in plans and possibly a change of location, do the |