National Budget

NATIONAL BUDGET.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1919.

UNITED STATES SENATE, COMMITTEE ON A NATIONAL BUDGET, Washington, D. C.

The committee met pursuant to call in room at 10.30 o'clock a. m., Senator Medill McCormick presiding.

The CHAIRMAN. Will the committee come to order? The other members of the committee have sent word that they will be present in the course of a few minutes. Gov. Lowden and Director of Finance Wright, of Illinois, both are here. May I ask what the pleasure of the committee is as regards hearing these gentlemen?

(The committee proceeded to consider the bill (H. R. 9783) which is here printed in full as follows:)

H. R. 9783, an act to provide a national budget system and an independent audit of Government accounts, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That_(a) there is created in the office of the the President a bureau of the budget. There shall be in the bureau a director and an assistant director, who shall be appointed by the President and receive salaries of $10,000 and $7,500 a year, respectively. The assistant director shall perform such duties as the director may designate, and during the absence or incapacity of the director or during a vacancy in the office of director he shall act as director.

(b) The director, with the approval of the President, shall appoint and fix the compensation of such employees and make such expenditures for rent, printing, telegrams, telephone, law books, books of reference. periodicals, stationery, furniture, office equipment, other supplies, and necessary expenses of the office as may from time to time be provided for by Congress. All employees in the bureau whose compensation is less than $5,000 a year shall be appointed from lists of eligibles furnished by the Civil Service Commission and in accordance with the civil-service laws and regulations.

(c) No person appointed by the director shall be paid a salary in excess of $5,000 a year, and not more than three persons appointed by him shall be paid a salary at that rate.

SEC. 2. That (a) the bureau of the budget shall assist the President in the performance of the powers conferred upon him by this act. The bureau shall also make a careful inevstigation of all provisions of law dealing in any way with the preparation and transmission to Congress of estimates, and the preparation and submission to Congress of financial data of any character, in order to determine what changes should be made in such provisions of law to the end that all requirements in respect to the reporting to Congress of financial data and estimates shall be brought together in one place, coordinated, revised, and brought into harmony with the alternative budget which the President is by section 6 required to submit to Congress. The results of such investigation shall be embodied in a report or reports to the President, who may transmit

to Congress such report or reports, or any part thereof, with such recommendations regarding the action which in his opinion should be taken upon the matters covered by such reports.

(b) All departments, bureaus, Boards, commissions, offices, agencies, or other establishments of the Government, except the legislative branch and the Supreme Court, shall furnish to the President such information regarding the powers, duties, activities; organizations, financial transactions, and methods of business of their respective offices as he may from time to time require of them, and the Director of the Bureau of the Budget, or any of his assistants or employees, when duly authorized by the President shall, for the purpose of securing such formation, have access to and the right to examine any books, documents, papers, or records of any such department, bureau, board, commission, office; agency, or other establishment.

SEC. 3. That on a date to be fixed by the President the heads of the several of business of their respective officers as he may from time to time require of authorized to make estimates for the public service, shall annually submit their estimates to the President instead of to the Secretary of the Treasury, and at the same time the Secretary of the Treasury shall submit to the President his estimates of the needs of his department, and for the permanent appropriations not otherwise estimated for, and such estimates of the public revenues and the condition of the Treasury as the President may direct.

SEC. 4. That the President shall transmit to Congress on the first day of each regular session after the calendar year 1919 a document to be known as The Budget, which document shall contain balanced statements of the revenues and expenditures of the Government for the preceding fiscal year and of the resources and liabilities of the Treasury at the close of the year, his estimates of the revenues and expenditures of the Government for the current fiscal year and of the resources and liabilities of the Treasury at the close of the year, his estimates of the revenue and expenditure needs of the Government for the ensuing fiscal year, and how, in his opinion, these needs should be met. The estimates of expenditures for the legislative branch of the Government and the Supreme Court shall be those submitted to the President. The President shall transmit with such budget such further data regarding the financial affairs of the Government and such recommendations in relation thereto as he deems proper.

SEC. 5. That, except as otherwise provided in this act, the statutes governing the contents, order, and arrangement of the estimates of appropriations and receipts, and the notes and other data submitted therewith, shall apply to the estimates submitted to the President under section 3, and to the estimates for the expenditure needs of the Government when transmitted by the President under section 4.

SEC. 6. That the President, in addition to the budget herein required to be transmitted, shall transmit at the same time and for the service of the fiscal year ending June 30, 1922, only, an alternative budget prepared in such form and according to such system of classification and itemization as is, in his opinion, most appropriate, with such explanatory notes and tables as may be necessary, to show where, in such budget, the various items embraced in the budget provided for in section 4 are contained. The alternative budget shall also make known the essential facts regarding the condition of the Treasury, revenues, and expenditures, appropriations, and what, in the opinion of the President, are the revenues and expenditure needs of the Government for the ensuing fiscal year, and how these needs should be met.

SEC. 7. That after June 30, 1920, no estimate or request for any appropriation, and no recommendation as to how the revenue needs of the Government should be met, shall be submitted to Congress by any officer of the executive branch of the Government except the President, unless at the request of either House of Congress.

SEC. 8. That after June 30, 1920, special and additional estimates may be transmitted by the President to provide (a) for the expenditures under any laws passed since the transmission of the regular estimates contained in the budget and (b) for appropriations which, in his judgment, are necessary for the public service, and he shall accompany such estimates with a statement of the reasons therefor.

SEC. 9. That there is created a department to be known as the Accounting Department, which shall be an establishment of the Government independent of the executive departments and under the control and direction of the Comptroller General of the United States. The offices of Comptroller of the Treas

ury and Assistant Comptroller of the Treasury are abolished, to take effect July 1, 1920. All other officers and employees of the Office of the Comptroller of the Treasury shall become officers and employees in the Accounting Department at their grades and salaries on July 1, 1920, and all books, records, documents, paper, furniture, office equipment, and other property of the Office of the Comptroller of the Treasury shall become the property of the Accounting Department.

There shall be in the Accounting Department a Comptroller General of the United States and an Assistant Comptroller General of the United States, who shall be appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate, and shall receive salaries of $10,000 and 7,500 a year, respectively. The Assistant Comptroller General shall perform such duties as may be assigned to him by the Comptroller General, and during the absence or incapacity of the Comptroller General, or during a vacancy in that office, shall act as Comptroller General. The Comptroller General and the Assistant Comptroller General shall hold office during good behavior, but may be removed at any time by concurrent resolution of Congress after notice and hearing, when, in their judgment, the Comptroller General or Assistant Comptroller General has been inefficient, or guilty of neglect of duty, or of malfeasance in office, or of any felony or conduct involving moral turpitude, and for no other cause and in no other manner except by impeachment.

Any Comptroller General or Assistant Comptroller General removed in the manner herein provided shall be ineligible for reappointment to that office. When a Comptroller General or Assistant Comptroller General attains the age of seventy years, he shall be retired from his office.

The provisions of this act relating to the Accounting Department shall be effective on July 1, 1920.

SEC. 10. That all powers and duties now conferred or imposed by law upon the Comptroller of the Treasury or upon the Auditor for the Treasury Department, the Auditor for the War Department, the Auditor for the Interior Department, the Auditor for the Navy Department, the Auditor for the State and Other Departments, or the Auditor for the Post Office Department shall, so far as not inconsistent with this act, be vested in and imposed upon the Accounting Department and be exercised without direction from any other officer, and the balances certified by the Comptroller General shall be final and conclusive upon the executive branch of the Government. The revision by the Comptroller General of settlements made by the six auditors referred to in this section shall be discontinued, except as to settlements made before July 1, 1920.

Section 236 of the Revised Statutes is hereby amended to read as follows: "SEC. 236. All claims and demands whatever by the United States or against them, and all accounts whatever in which the United States are concerned, either as debtors or creditors, shall be settled and adjusted in the Accounting Department."

SEC. 11. That the offices of the six auditors enumerated in section 10 shall be abolished, to take effect July 1, 1920, but the then incumbents of those offices shall be transferred, at their present salaries, to become officers of the Accounting Department. All other officers and employees of these offices shall become officers and employees in the Accounting Department at their grades and salaries on July 1, 1920. All books, records, documents, papers, furniture, office equipment, and other property of these offices shall become the property of the Accounting Department. The Accounting Department shall occupy the rooms now occupied by the Office of the Comptroller of the Treasury and the six auditors referred to in section 10 until otherwise provided.

SEC. 12. That the Comptroller General shall appoint, remove, and fix the compensation of such officers and employees in the department as may from time to time be provided for by Congress, and perform all other duties of a head of an independent Government establishment. All such appointments, except to positions carrying a salary of $5,000 a year, shall be made from lists of eligibles furnished by the Civil Service Commission, and in accordance with the civilservice laws and regulations. No person appointed by the Comptroller General shall be paid a salary in excess of $5,000 a year, and not more than three persons appointed by him shall be paid a salary at that rate. Until March 5, 1921, no person who at the time of the passage of this act holds office as one of the six auditors referred to in section 10, and who in pursuance of section 11 is transferred to the Accounting Department, shall be removed from office or have his

« Previous Continue »

Books

National Budget: Hearings Before the Committee on Consideration of a ...