Not only is it desirable that all agencies of the Federal Government should know as soon as possible what is intended after the war, it is essential that States, municipalities, and private business should know so that they can adjust their own plans accordingly.

The Federal Works Agency has developed the techniques of public works construction and of planning for public works. As heir to the experience of P. W. A. and W. P. A. it knows the pitfalls to be avoided and has profited from the mistakes of the past.

I have not, of course, included any request for the financing of a plan of post-war public works in the estimates submitted to you today. I should feel remiss in my duty, however, if I failed to take advantage of this occasion to direct the attention of the Congress, through the committee, to what I consider to be an imperatively urgent need.

I have one more thing I would like to call to the attention of the committee, a special situation in the Federal Works Agency.

PROPOSED INCREASE IN SALARIES OF COMMISSIONERS OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS AND PUBLIC ROADS ADMINISTRATIONS

The Commissioner of Public Building Administration and the Commissioner of Public Roads Administration are included in 1944 appropriation estimates at their present salaries of $9,000 per annum. I submitted to the Bureau of the Budget a change in language in the appropriation which specifically authorized the payment of salaries of $10,000 per annum to these two Commissioners. I feel an extremely inequitable situation exists whereby the Commissioners in more recently established organizations receive salaries of $10,000 per annum while the incumbents of these two positions continue at the present

rate.

I am sure the records of Mr. Reynolds and Mr. MacDonald are so well known to the Congress that I do not need to go into a detailed classification of this recommendation.

The Bureau of the Budget indicated that they had no objection to such increases but felt that any such recommendation should come from me directly to this committee.

I wish therefore to specifically recommend a modification of the language of the appropriation act which will authorize the payment of $10,000 per annum to the Commissioner of the Public Building Administration and the Commissioner of the Public Roads Administration.

Mr. WOODRUM. It would not require any additional appropriation, I assume?

General FLEMING. NO.

POST-WAR PLANNING PROGRAM

Mr. WOODRUM. You have nothing whatever in the Public Works Administration estimates now that would authorize post-war planning to any degree?

General FLEMING. No.

ADVANCE PLANNING FOR STRATEGIC HIGHWAY NETWORK

Mr. DIRKSEN. May I ask a question at that point: Your office got out a release sometime within the past 2 or 3 months relative to a $500,000,000 highway works project on which the planning was being done, was it not?

General FLEMING. That, as I said, is the one exception. The Public Roads Administration has an authorization of $10,000,000, which is matched by the States with another $10,000,000, for planning of post-war construction of special types of highways. And, since planning and preliminary work was estimated at about 4 percent of the total cost that $20,000,000 would be expanded into about $500,000,000 worth of works when built.

Mr. DIRKSEN. Could you place in the record a statement showing in a broad way the general nature of the work and how far it has progressed?

General FLEMING. Yes.

Mr. DIRKSEN. I do not suppose that is restricted information? General FLEMING. NO.

(The statement requested follows:)

Status of programs for advance engineering funds, sec. 9, Defense Highway Act of 1941, as of Jan. 16, 1943

Status of programs for advance engineering funds, sec. 9, Defense Highway Act of 1941, as of Jan. 16, 1943-Continued

Programs from Iowa, Nevada, South Carolina, and South Dakota have been received and are being held for further information from the respective States. Programs from Illinois and Nebraska have been received and are now under review.

POST-WAR PLANNING PROGRAM

(See p. 359)

Mr. FITZPATRICK. You are not doing any post-war planning at the present time?

General FLEMING. No; we are not. We have no funds which authorize us to do that.

Mr. FITZPATRICK. It would be very important.

General FLEMING. I think it is tremendously important.

We had this Public Work reserve which set up a certain number of projects. With the liquidation of WPA there are left in our office a great number of approved projects, many of which are pretty well along. Some of them will be completed, others will be added to that shelf, but even then it is not as large as it should be.

Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. What is the dollar value of that reserve you speak of, of the Public Works reserve?

General FLEMING. About $5,000,000,000.

Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. Are you familiar with what the National Resources Planning Board is doing?

General FLEMING. Yes; we have been working very closely with them. I see the members of the Board every time they meet here, and Mr. Delano and Professor Merriam and Mr. Yantis are just a floor above me.

Mr. WOODRUM. Do you not think that will add to some of your activities?

General FLEMING. Their work does not get the projects in the blueprint form. I think you have got to have these programs in the blueprint and specification stages so that when the time comes you can take the job off the shelf and start to work that day, or the

next.

Now there is some work going on. In the city of New York, for instance, because they have money for construction and cannot get

priorities for materials for construction, they are diverting about $20,000 000 or a little more, of their construction fund to actual preparing of plans and writing of specifications, and there will be a very considerable amount of work ready to go. Also the State of New York is doing the same thing. They are spending about $20,000,000 in actually drawing up plans and specifications and the selection of sites.

Mr. WOODRUM. What type projects generally?
General FLEMING. Public works.

Mr. FITZPATRICK. Subways, bridges, hospitals.
Mr. WOODRUM. And schools.

General FLEMING. Schools, street improvements.

Mr. WOODRUM. No construction?

General FLEMING. No; those are the only ones that I know of that are spending any money on blueprints and specifications.

Mr. WOODRUM. Those are construction types of projects?
General FLEMING. Yes.

Mr. WOODRUM. There will be people, of course, who have no ability to do construction work. What are they doing about those?

General FLEMING. I do not think they are doing anything about them now, but I think it will be necessary to have other types of projects for them.

Mr. WOODRUM. What is your specific suggestion as to what should be done?

General FLEMING. I think there should be legislation providing for advance engineering, surveys, and plans for future development of Federal and cooperative Federal, State, and local Public Works projects by the Federal Works Agency and an appropriation to permit us to carry on this function.

Mr. FITZPATRICK. There are no uncompleted P. W. A. projects outside of one or two?

General FLEMING. One that is not complete is the Chicago subway, and that is going along. I understand they are getting some priorities to finish it.

The Santee-Cooper project in North Caroline is not fully completed.

And there are a number of other projects which were started by localities, but there are only about 20 of them, I should say.

OFFICE OF THE ADMINISTRATOR, SALARIES AND EXPENSES

(See p. 347)

Mr. WOODRUM. For the salaries and expenses of your office you are asking $386,000, an increase of $36,000 over the current appropriation. General FLEMING. Yes; there is an increase from $350,000.

Mr. WOODRUM. What is the explanation of that $36,000 increase? Is it because, as a result of consolidation, a like amount has been taken out of the total estimates for the agencies that were consolidated? Do you have some break-down showing where that $36,000 is taken from?

Mr. HALL. $18,500 of that was an increase to the General Counsel's office, because of the consolidation of all legal functions of the Public Buildings Administration into the office of the Administrator.

Those attorneys had been paid from construction funds of the Public Buildings Administration. Construction funds ceased to be available this year and the Bureau of the Budget, in making its approval of the consolidation in 1942, failed to provide these funds in the office of the Administrator in the 1943 estimates.

Mr. WOODRUM. Does that deduction come in the Public Buildings Administration?

Mr. HALL. The deduction would have come from the Public Buildings Administration if the construction program had continued, but with the elimination of the construction program there were no construction funds that could be transferred in 1943. However, legal work is still necessary in connection with thousands of leases, litigation on old projects, and so forth.

Mr. WOODRUM. To that extent the $18,500 then is an increase, an over-all increase, since it does not come out of other funds?

Mr. HALL. No. The consolidation was made in 1942 from the Public Buildings Administration and the deduction was actually made from the 1942 appropriations for the Public Buildings Administration. No provision was made for it in 1943 in either the Public Buildings Administration or the office of the Administrator. Mr. WOODRUM. What is the necessity for carrying that over into the Administrator's office if the positions of that Agency have been discontinued?

Mr. HALL. The positions have not been discontinued. They were simply transferred to the office of the Administrator.

Mr. WOODRUM. Where is the other $17,500 accounted for; how is that arrived at?

Mr. HALL. There are increases in the various staff offices; for example $6,900 in the office of the Administrator. These increases are all outlined in detail in the justification.

Mr. WOODRUM. What I am trying to find out is in what office or administration does it show up as a decrease; there should be a decrease somewhere as referred to in the general statement.

Mr. HALL. The $18,500 decrease shows as a decrease in the 1942 appropriation for Public Buildings Administration.

Mr. WOODRUM. And would have shown up if you had had an appropriation for 1943.

Mr. HALL. And we do not have for 1943.

Mr. WOODRUM. So it is actually an increase in the Administrator's office.

Mr. HALL. That is correct as between the fiscal years 1943 and 1944, the reduction having been made in Public Buildings construction funds in 1942.

Mr. WOODRUM. So you are just taking on that much more from somewhere else.

Mr. HALL. Well, the people were actually transferred to the General Counsel's office.

Mr. WOODRUM. I know.

Mr. HALL. We actually moved the individuals.

Mr. WOODRUM. What about the rest of that; where is that taken from?