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NATIONAL CAPITAL PARK AND PLANNING COMMISSION, Washington, D. C., May 4, 1948. Subject: Bill to provide for acquisition of additional land along Mount Vernon Memorial Highway in exchange for certain dredging privileges and for other purposes.

The honorable the PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE,

Washington, D. C.

DEAR SIR: Enclosed is a proposed bill to provide for the acquisition of additional land along the Mount Vernon Memorial Highway in exchange for certain dredging privileges and for other purposes.

As the act of May 29, 1930 (46 Stat. 482) known as the George Washington Memorial Parkway Act authorizes the National Capital Park and Planning Commission to acquire the necessary lands for the George Washington Memorial Parkway along the shores of the Potomac River and provides that the Mount Vernon Memorial Highway, authorized by the act approved May 23, 1928, upon its completion, shall be maintained and administered by the Director of the Public Buildings and Public Parks of the National Capital, the National Capital Park and Planning Commission is much interested in the protection of this highway.

The original plan for the Mount Vernon Memorial Highway provided for a right-of-way of 200 feet, and in several places the right-of-way was acquired for only that width. Finding that this width was inadequate, more extensive park areas were acquired on either side in the later acquisitions. Actual experience has shown that this 200-foot width is too narrow and there is danger of developments along the highway in certain places that would be detrimental to the best interest of the highway. The National Capital Park and Planning Commission, in collaboration with the Department of the Interior and the Chief of Engineers' office, has worked out a proposed exchange with the Smoot Sand & Gravel Corp. which will provide additional lands and protection to the highway and give the corporation in exchange the privilege of dredging areas adjacent to the Potomac River, desirable to them for securing sand and gravel to supply the demand for building operations in and around Washington.

These exchanges are made at no cost to the United States. The proposed bill is largely self-explanatory. It provides

1. The Smoot Sand & Gravel Corp. deed to the United States a strip of land below Hunters Creek, 5,700 feet in length, averaging approximately 800 feet in width and containing 110 acres, more or less; also deed an adjoining area of 150 acres, more or less, to the United States, the corporation reserving the right to dredge the sand and gravel from this area. These deeds to be given for the privilege of the Smoot Sand & Gravel Corp. dredging the sand and gravel from 85 acres, more or less of land belonging to the United States lying along the Potomac River, approximately 800 feet east of the highway. These exchanges are more specifically shown on plan No. 105.22-415 in the files of the National Capital Park and Planning Commission.

The Commission has checked very carefully this proposed transfer, and believes it will be of considerable advantage to the Federal Government, and also that it is fair to the Smoot Sand & Gravel Corp.

The Bureau of the Budget offers no objection to this legislation.

It is requested that the enclosed bill be placed before the Senate for appropriate action.

Respectfully yours.

U. S. GRANT, 3d, Major General, United States Army, Retired, Chairman.

NATIONAL CAPITAL PARK AND PLANNING COMMISSION,
Washington, D. C., May 28, 1948.

Subject: S. 2694-Mount Vernon Memorial Highway.
Hon. CHAPMAN REVERCOMB,

Chairman, Committee on Public Works,

United States Senate, Washington, D. C.

MY DEAR SENATOR REVERCOMB: This acknowledges your formal request of May 20, 1948, for a report on S. 2694, to provide for the acquisition of additional land along the Mount Vernon Memorial Highway in exchange for certain dredging privileges, and for other purposes. This Lill was forwarded to the Senate by this Commission with an explanatory letter signed by me. It is noted that the

President of the Senate very properly referred it to your committee and you have been good enough to introduce it.

As my letter to the President of the Senate covers fully the purposes of the introduction of the bill, I request that you consider that letter as our formal report.

This bill is identical with H. R. 5842, introduced by Mr. Dondero, chairman of the House Public Works Committee.

Extensive hearings were held on this bill, copy of which is enclosed, and favorable report made by the House Public Works Committee. I am enclosing printed copy of the hearings and copy of the House report which quotes in full my letter on this bill, a letter from the Under Secretary of the Interior, and mentions that Mr. Thomas H. MacDonald, Commissioner of Public Roads Administration and others testified in favor of the bill. You will see from the printed hearings that the District engineer presented a very forceful letter, and the Superintendent of National Capital Parks, who administers the Mount Vernon Memorial Highway, testified as to the need.

With this detailed information and these strong endorsements before you, I trust that your committee can soon give this bill, which we consider very important, early favorable consideration. We shall, of course, be happy to give you any further information that you may request or appear before your committee if you wish us to do so.

Sincerely yours,

U. S. GRANT 3d,

Major General, United States Army, Retired, Chairman.

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Mr. FLANDERS, from the Committee on Banking and Currency, submitted the following

REPORT

[To accompany H. R. 6959]

The Committee on Banking and Currency, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 6959) to amend the National Housing Act, as amended, and for other purposes, having considered the same, report favorably thereon with an amendment and recommend that the bill as amended do pass.

The pending bill (H. R. 6959) as passed by the House of Representatives on June 18, 1948, proposes various amendments to existing statutes designed primarily to extend credit aids for privately financed housing. In substance, the bill as passed by the House was concerned with reestablishment of Federal secondary mortgage market facilities, for reactivation of the mortgage-insurance program under title VI of the National Housing Act, the establishment of a system of yield. insurance for investments in new rental housing, the establishment of a system of accelerated tax amortization of investments in new rental housing, and the establishment of a program for rapid disposal of permanent Federally owned war housing. The provisions of the House bill with respect to title VI of the National Housing Act and with respect to yield insurance were substantially identical with the comparable provisions of S. 866, which passed the Senate on April 22. In considering the provisions of the pending bill, the committee feels that much broader and more comprehensive legislative aids than those proposed in the House bill will be necessary if the Federal Government is to extend effective assistance to the alleviation of the serious and long-standing shortage of decent housing in this country. The provisions of the House bill would affect only limited segments of the housing problem and would authorize no action whatsoever with respect to such basic and critical phases of that problem as slum clearance, the provision of decent low-rent public housing for families of low income, housing assistance for low-income farmers, and the establishment of an effective technical research program aimed at

correcting the basic problem of too high housing costs through improved methods of construction and other technological advances. The bill as passed by the House also does not carry out necessary and desirable amendments to the permanent mortgage insurance program under title II of the National Housing Act so as to bring that program in line with present-day conditions and to stimulate and assist the construction of the lower priced and lower rental private housing which is so sorely needed by veterans and other families today.

All these phases of the housing problem were approached with effective aids in the provisions of S. 866. The committee remains firmly convinced that this comprehensive bill, the product of 4 years of congressional study and conforming with the recommendations of the Joint Committee on Housing in its final report on March 15, 1948, presents the soundest and most far-reaching basis for progress in overcoming the deep-seated housing shortage and in bringing about permanent improvements in the housing conditions of the American people.

Accordingly, the committee feels that rather than undertake detailed individual amendments to H. R. 6959 to conform it to the objectives outlined above, the most direct and expeditious action is to substitute the provisions of S. 866, which already have been approved by the Senate after full debate.

In following this course, the committee has felt it desirable to make certain minor amendments to S. 866 as it passed the Senate in the light of subsequent developments. Section 603 of title VI, relating to insurance of mortgages on one-to-four family houses primarily for sale, is considered to have certain inflationary effects. Since the authority to issue insurance commitments under this section has already lapsed for more than 3 months and since the proposed amendments to title II will extend assistance to the financing of lower-priced houses, the reactivation of section 603 has been omitted. With respect to the secondary market provisions of S. 866, the committee has felt it desirable to substitute necessary amendments to the secondary market provisions of Public Law 864, which was passed at the close of the regular session. These amendments increase to 50 percent from 25 percent the percentage of FHA mortgages or GI loans made by individual lending institutions since April 30, 1948, which may be purchased by the Federal National Mortgage Associa tion, and reinstate the authority of FNMA to purchase rental housing and cooperative housing mortgages insured by FHA under titles II and VI of the National Housing Act.

Since H. R. 6959 as amended by the committee is otherwise identical with S. 866 as it passed the Senate, the committee refers the Members of the Senate to part 2 of the Report 140, dated April 8, 1948, for detailed analysis of the provisions of the bill.

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AUGUST 6 (legislative day, August 5), 1948.-Ordered to be printed

Mr. TOBEY, from the Committee on Banking and Currency, submitted the following

REPORT

[To accompany S. 2919]

The Committee on Banking and Currency, to whom was referred the bill (S. 2919) to amend the National Housing Act, as amended, with respect to mortgages of certain veterans housing corporations, having considered the same, report favorably thereon with amendments and recommend that the bill as amended do pass.

During the closing hours of the regular session, Congress passed S. 2790, approved by the President July 1, 1948, becoming Public Law 864. This bill, in part, purported to liberalize section 207 of title II of the National Housing Act, as amended, for veterans' housing, either nonprofit cooperative projects or individual homes built for veterans by nonprofit veterans' companies by permitting FHA insurance of mortgages up to 95 percent of estimated value instead of the 80 percent limitation theretofore existing.

Unfortunately, this amendment, which altered section 207 (c) (2), failed to change the $1,350 per room limitation in 207 (c) (3) for such veterans' housing, a limitation which is archaic and obsolete insofar as building costs in almost all areas of the country are concerned. Congress in 1946 recognized this by increasing the $1,350 figure in section 608 of title VI of the National Housing Act, as amended, to $1,500 and giving the Administrator power to increase this to $1,800 "where in his discretion cost levels so require.' Since section 207 (c) contains three separate limitations on insurable mortgages, all of which must be met, liberalizing one of these the percentage of estimated value-without affecting the room-limitation provision, accomplished little. The increase in percentage is of little value as long as the $1,350 per room figure remains.

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If it be said that multiunit housing can still be built at $1,350 per room, the FHA has stated that of all rental projects insured under 608 during 1947, 98.7 percent cost over $1,350 per room.

S. Repts., 80-2, vol. 4- -100

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