is a very modest contingency in view of the circumstances with which we are faced. Mr. SIKES. Are these contracts to be let on a bid basis or upon a negotiated basis? General NOLD. They are to be let upon a competitive-bid basis until we are forced to do it otherwise. Mr. SIKES. If you contractors know that you have a 15 percent spread in there, will they not take advantage of that in their bidding? General NOLD. They should not. The bidding is a competitive proposition. Mr. SIKES. It appears to me that a 15 percent increase is a lot to add to the known cost. Does that apply throughout this bill? General NOLD. That applies throughout. In our normal presentation we allow a contingency that may go up to 15 percent based upon the uncertainties of the actual construction difficulties in the field. Mr. SIKES. Fifteen percent of $85,000,000 is about $13,000,000. That is a high addition which I am not sure is justified. General NOLD. In our judgment that is well warranted. FUNDS RETURNED TO THE TREASURY Mr. SIKES. What becomes of that money if you do not have to spend it? General NOLD. It is turned back to the Treasury or a new application is made for authority to apply it to another project. Mr. SIKES. I do not seem to recall any of it being turned back to the Treasury. I do not say that it has not been. General NOLD. We turn back money every year. Mr. SIKES. What has been the past history of these things? Has money been turned back to the Treasury from these funds? General NOLD. Normally not, because the authorization usually runs considerably beyond the appropriation. Mr. SIKES. In other words, it usually costs us 15 percent more than you people think it is going to cost to do these jobs? General NOLD. No, sir. Mr. SIKES. What becomes of the extra percent? General NOLD. As I stated, in normal times that is a maximum contingency that we allow. Sometimes it amounts to only 1 or 2 percent. In this case we are faced with certain scarce materials and rising prices. It is shown very clearly in the construction indexes of the country. TYPE OF WORK CONTEMPLATED Mr. SIKES. How much of this $109,000 represents the construction of altogether new facilities and how much replacements? General NOLD. All except the warehouse will be new facilities The warehouse is a replacement. Mr. SIKES. Is all of it essential to the operation? General NOLD. Yes. CONTROL OVER CONSTRUCTION COSTS Mr. PLUMLEY. From another source of information we learned yesterday that while the prime contractor sets the figure to which you agree there is some question about your ability to control a possible rise in the cost by reason of these incidental rises to which you have referred, as shown by the indices. Is there any way by which in the long run, the costs could be kept down? General NOLD. I do not think, Mr. Plumley, I am in a position to advise any remedy at this time. In our current experience we are receiving bids that are satisfactory and within our estimates. The condition may change. If wages get out of control and the prices of materials get out of control, then we may have reluctant bidders. It may cost the Government money. At that time that will be the time to take a reading on the situation to see what should be done. Mr. PLUMLEY. The situation cannot be foreseen; neither can the remedy, I take it? General NOLD. That is correct, sir. PURPOSE OF WORK CONTEMPLATED Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. General, this item is not for the purpose of increasing our defense facilities in Alaska, or for emergency requirements in the Far East, is it? General NOLD. I think that is not a correct statement. Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. Is it or is it not? General NOLD. It is not. This construction is for the support of our forces in the field. The activities of both the field forces board and the post are in direct support of our field activities. Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. Pretty indirectly, are they not? General NOLD. Well, it is a matter of opinion. It is a matter of judgment whether they are direct or indirect. Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. This is not an item to support the accelerated research and development program within the continental United States, is it? General NOLD. Yes. Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. How? General NOLD. That is the work of the Army Field Forces Board No. 3. Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. What type of work is that board doing? General NOLD. They run field service tests and advise the research and development people of additional laboratory work or additional designs that are required to meet a given requirement for a weapon, or for transportation. Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. I thought this was an infantry center, including an infantry school. General NOLD. Primarily they are concerned with light weapons. That is a definite responsibility of the board. It is a function also of the school. Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. Is it not primarily an infantry center? General BARRIGER. If I may attempt to clear this up, sir, the Field Force Board gets an item which has been produced, and that has to be field tested, and in the field test they develop any bugs in that weapon or piece of equipment and then that equipment has to be modified, refined in part, and that sort of thing, before it can be issued to the troops to determine whether it will actually work in the field. That board handles primarily infantry weapons and equipment. QUESTION OF URGENCY IN APPROVAL OF FUNDS Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. It is relatively a small item, but it seems to be primarily a request for a warehouse and a lavatory building and a heating plant, and I just wondered if this is typical of the requests that are being made in this over-all picture of $85,000,000. General NOLD. Anything that meets the need of that Board and the school is of aid in the present situation. Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. There is nobody around this table that does not want to spend every cent necessary for defense purposes, but you have given us some rather general patriotic language in your opening statement which offhand does not seem to me to apply to the routine items of this kind, which, of course, you are glad to have if you can get them, but which raises the question in my mind as to their urgency. They have not been included heretofore on a priority basis and now they are, as I understand it. General NOLD. This has always been on our list. Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. You have not asked for it before. General NOLD. We have not. The budget ceilings did not permit. Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. I have no further questions. Mr. TABER. You have had this camp going for years and you have all the improvements available that were there during the war. It hardly seems to me that you need these items particularly. It seems as though they would not be very pressing. General BARRIGER. It has been quite true that those activities have been going on there, but they have been going on, as you say, in World War II structures, the life of which has gone. Mr. TABER. You have a central heating plant and a boiler room. You must have a boiler room there and a central heating plant. General BARRIGER. They have space heaters there now. They constitute a fire hazard, and in the long run it will save the Government money by putting in a central heating plant, due to the high maintenance cost. Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. Why did you not ask for it before? General BARRIGER. We did not have the requirements within the ceiling limitations. It has always been in the program. Mr. TABER. Administrative building for test shop, $14,000, and a warehouse, $65,000. You must have a warehouse at Fort Benning. General NOLD. True, but the justification, Mr. Taber, shows the reason for it. Mr. RABAUT. Do you know that the Appropriations Committee is reviewing every civilian need in the whole country, and here we are with these kinds of propositions up before us just because they are presented by the armed services. We are denying everybody everything. Do you people think in the light of that, that you ought really to ask what you are requesting on these pages before us when we have a debt so colossal it is almost knocking us out? General BARRIGER. We think that we should. Mr. RABAUT. I just cannot see it. General BARRIGER. I think that anything that furthers the research and development program is warranted in the light of present conditions. Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. Such as a lavatory building? Mr. RABAUT. Is a new heating system going to be so necessary at a time like this? We are denying heating systems, buildings, and absolute essentials to the people of this country. Here the Army comes in, the defense forces, and they want a new heating system and all under the guise of the war. General BARRIGER. We have to have heating systems even for the people in the Army. Mr. RABAUT. Nobody wants to deny them anything, but we want no frills. Mr. TABER. There are two items in there that look like somebody could warm up to-one is the target house for $2,000, and the other is the magazine for the storage of ammunition. If you need those I would be in favor of them. Mr. SHEPPARD. Let me ask you this: In the budget requirements we have under consideration, are you initiating a program here, or are you accepting the policy of expansion, military expansion, that is laid down by the top echelon of the military concept? General BARRIGER. If I understand your question correctly Mr. SHEPPARD. My question is directed to you to indicate whether you are the originator of this program because of your own desire for improvement, and so forth, or whether you are following a pattern of military development that has been made by those who direct military operations in this fashion. General BARRIGER. We are definitely following that pattern. Mr. SHEPPARD. Then, if that is a true conclusion, and a true answer-which I know it is, otherwise you would not give it—then you are actually responding here as a service agency under direction, are you not? General BARRIGER. I do not want to hedge, and I do not want to dodge your question. Mr. SHEPPARD. And I do not want you to. General BARRIGER. I just want to know if I understand it. Mr. SHEPPARD. I would like to know whether or not this is a grouping of projects that have had their origin within the department exclusively, or whether or not you are concurring with the military policy that has been established and laid down by those who are charged with that responsibility and resulting out of those orders have come what you have presented here. That is my question. General BARRIGER. It comes into the minds of those people from many sources from the requirements of the field agencies-and it is evaluated by the people who direct the program, and finally, after consideration by the Research and Development Board and its staff, as well as many other people, our best conclusion is that these are the projects which are required. Mr. SHEPPARD. Then, when you have reached that conclusion they are submitted through four or five different channels for the purpose of scrutinizing these requests; is that correct? General BARRIGER. That is correct. Mr. SHEPPARD. Then, as a result of the field recommendation and the screening process followed both by the Bureau of the Budget and others, you have come up with this as your final answer? General BARRIGER. That is correct. Mr. SHEPPARD. It is assumed that this request has been predicated upon not only the Korean situation as it may proportionately con tribute to the requirements, but to a proportionate readiness for this Nation to meet the eventualities of tomorrow? General BARRIGER. That is correct. Mr. SHEPPARD. Is there any other reason why these appropriations are being presented to this committee? General BARRIGER. No. Mr. SHEPPARD. Is there anything in this particular presentation, to the best of your personal knowledge and belief, that should be eliminated that would not contribute to the material necessity of the program that I have just discussed? I General BARRIGER. I do not think there is, Mr. Chairman. admit quite frankly that a lavatory building could be deferred and you could dig pit latrines if the ground were available. You could not do it indefinitely because you would foul all the ground, but in order to enable that place to function efficiently and carry out its mission, it certainly contributes in the light of the present situation. Mr. SHEPPARD. Are there any of these proposed projects that are seing placed in the permanent category that could be substituted by temporary or semitemporary construction? General BARRIGER. No, sir; they are all in the permanent category. Mr. SHEPPARD. Are they being developed upon basis that are not established in the permanent category? General BARRIGER. They are not. They are established in the permanent category, programed that way, and this is simply a speeding up of that program in the light of the present situation. Mr. SHEPPARD. And the thing that has prevented these proposals from appearing in presentations heretofore made to the Appropriations Committee and to the Congress has been based upon your ceiling limitations that have been established over a period of time; is that correct? General BARRIGER. That is correct. Mr. SHEPPARD. And insofar as the necessity is concerned, the necessity has prevailed for a considerable length of time? General BARRIGER. It has. Mr. SHEPPARD. And the international situation has increased the necessity to the degree of its occurrence here? General BARRIGER. That is correct. FORT HOOD, TEX. Mr. SHEPPARD. We will take up the next project in your request, Fort Hood, Tex., where I see that you are requesting $500,000. We will insert in the record at this point the prepared justifications. (The justifications referred to are as follows:) Fort Hood, Tex. Improvements to battalion motor park facilities_ DETAILED JUSTIFICATION OF PROJECT Improvements to battalion motor park facilities, $500,000 $500,000 This project proposes the improvement of four battalion motor park areas. The total area to be improved consists of 220,000 square yards. The improvements will provide for the construction of 12 inches of flexible base with 2 inches asphaltic concrete surface binder and 2 inches asphaltic surface course, shaped to provide surface drainage; auxiliary water main including booster pumps to serve |