Politics & Appropriations
Politics & Appropriations
When Congress is in session, the least partisan committee is the House Committee on Appropriations. Its Republican Chairman, Representative Will Wood of Indiana, forgets he is also Chairman of the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee and works in perfect harmony with his chief Democratic colleague, Representative Joseph W. Byrns of Tennessee, who is also Chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
But once Congress adjourns and the work of the Appropriations Committee is balanced and reviewed, Messrs. Wood and Byrns revert instantly to the roles of par-tisan readers, each striving fiercely for a political advantage from the committee's record. Last week in statements in a supplementary issue of the Congressional Record they began their political war. Each used the same set of official figures and came to opposite conclusions.
Agreed: The last session of Congress appropriated $4,873,929,233.16 to operate the Government for the current fiscal year.
Republican Wood conceded that this sum was $208,692,465.12 more than the 70th Congress had appropriated for the last fiscal year, but argued that the in- creases were all for worthy causes. Major increases over 1930: Farm relief, $101,900,000; rivers & harbors, $21,600,000; public buildings, $20,000,000; Boulder Dam, $10,660,000; public roads, $37,400,-ooo. Declared Congressman Wood: "The Republican Party [is] anxious and proud to place before the American people the constructive, honest and efficient fiscal record it has made. . . . This record and the traditional capacity of the Republican Party to provide efficient and sane management of the affairs of Government should commend themselves to every thoughtful citizen."
Democrat Byrns, afire with political zeal, added to the agreed total of 1931 appropriations $51,000,000 for future payment of War claims, and $199,310,597.12 appropriated in the first or special session of this Congress for farm relief and back postal pay to railroads, arriving at a total of $5,124,239,830.28. This sum, he argued, exceeded last year's appropriations by $459,003,062.24. He made much of the fact that White House appropriations under President Hoover had jumped $91,840 from the $43 7, 1 80 President Coolidge got along with. Said he : "Even the 'myth' of Coolidge economy disappeared with his regime. . . . From a semblance of econ omy, the Government had indulged . . in a riot of extravagance. . . . Under his [Hoover's] Administration expenditures have reached their peak. . . . Relief can not be hoped for under Republican rule. There must be a return to Democratic policies and Democratic simplicity."
Alarmed at the indisputable increase in expenditures, President Hoover had some figures of his own compiled by the Budget Bureau. With his Cabinet he considered anew the problem of Federal finance, ordered each member to "undertake a searching inquiry into every branch of the Government as to methods by which econ omies may be brought about." He was "confident we shall find measures for very considerable reductions of actual outlay below the amounts appropriated."
Speaking of budget estimates and not of actual appropriations by Congress as were Messrs. Wood and Byrns, the President announced: "The total budget estimates for the present fiscal year are $4,203,254,457 as compared with actual expenditures for the last fiscal year of $3,994,152,487 or an increase of $209,101,970, being an in crease of 5%. ... The largest increases are for the speeding up of buildings, inland waterways and public works to assist in unemployment, together with increased relief of veterans.
"There has been some confusion as to the amount of increased appropriations imposed by the last Congress by the mistaken inclusion of authorized programs which extend over many years and only in a small part fall in each annual budget.
"The [Cabinet] discussion was directed to measures for reduction of expenditures, with a view to meeting possible reduction of revenue arising from slack times."
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