RIVER AND HARBOR OMNIBUS BILL FEBRUARY 8, 1945.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed Mr. MANSFIELD of Texas, from the Committee on Rivers and Harbors, submitted the following REPORT [To accompany S. 35] The Committee on Rivers and Harbors, to whom was referred the bill (S. 35) authorizing the construction, repair, and preservation of certain public works on rivers and harbors, and for other purposes, having considered the same; report favorably thereon without amendment and recommend that the bill do pass. The bill contains 291 projects for improvement, estimated to cost $381,968,332. These projects were all approved by both Senate and House in the preceding Congress in the bill (H. R. 3961), which died on the calendar at the end of the Seventy-eighth Congress last December. Ten projects in the bill, involving an expenditure of $13,259,600, are recommended by the Army or naval authorities as being urgent in the war. Twelve other projects in the bill were considered of such urgency that they have already been completed out of the war funds. appropriated for the Army or the Navy. Some of these projects are now in need of repairs, and the President has recommended that they be approved by Congress in order to be eligible for maintenance expenditures. Projects in the bill other than those necessary in the war effort are not to be eligible for appropriation until peace is established, when their construction will afford at least partial relief from an acute employment situation. The bill is the successor of H. R. 3961 in the last Congress, which passed the House March 22, and passed the Senate December 12, 1944. That bill died in conference at the end of the Seventy-eighth Congress. Every project now embraced in the pending bill was agreed to by the conferees on H. R. 3961, and approved by both Senate and House. The only point in disagreement was the provision amending the reclamation law pertaining to the Central Valley project in the State of California. That provision is not embraced in the present bill. Neither does the present bill contain any project that was considered controversial when said bill H. R. 3961 was under consideration. Realizing the emergency for the enactment of the projects in the present bill, the Senate Commerce Committee commenced action upon them immediately after the convening of the present Congress. They eliminated all controversial provisions in the bill H. R. 3961, which action was patriotically agreed to by the Senators who had previously urged those measures. The bill then passed the Senate by unanimous vote. It is understood that several projects not in the present bill are under consideration by the Army engineers under surveys authorized by law. Upon receipt of favorable reports, those measures will be given prompt consideration, and if approved will be reported later in the present session. Controversial projects eliminated by the House or Senate in the last Congress may also be reported in the present session for such action as the House may wish to take. In view of the fact that all the projects reported in the bill have heretofore been approved by the Senate and House, are now uncontested, and have been the subject matter of extensive hearings during previous sessions of Congress, the committee has concluded that no additional hearings are necessary. Reference is made by the committee to the hearings in both the House and the Senate, and to the reports made on H. R. 3961, for detailed information with regard to the projects herein recommended to be authorized.* It is very important that the pending bill, relieved of items and provisions of dispute and prolonged debate, should enjoy a speedy passage through the House in order that the Army engineers may proceed with their accustomed task of preparing detailed plans and specifications and blueprints for those projects to be constructed after the termination of the war with the view of having projects advertised for letting, and otherwise proceeded with, as rapidly as the termination of hostilities will admit. The Subcommittee on Appropriations, making appropriations for the civil functions of the War Department, is now considering the appropriations for river and harbor works. The chairman of that committee, the Honorable J. Buell Snyder, advises that prompt and favorable action on this bill will be necessary in order to have provision made for the appropriation of the funds required for construction of the projects in this bill that are recommended for immediate execution necessary in the war effort. It is recommended that the bill be passed without amendment, as any amendment may lead to controversial matters that will cause delay and possibly jeopardize the passage of the bill. It has now been 7 years since a general river and harbor bill has been enacted, though during that time several bills have been reported by this committee. It is the hope that the House will take the same patriotic view that actuated the Senate, and let these meritorious and uncontroversial measures become law without further delay. Projects contained in river and harbor bill (S. 35) Northeast Harbor, Maine.. Project 1 Isle au Haut Thoroughfare, Maine. Hendricks Harbor, Maine.. Portland Harbor, Maine. Portland Harbor, Maine, and the maintenance of Soldier Ledge Channel in Hussey Sound, Casco Bay, at a depth of 40 feet. H. 227, 76th Cong. $94, 500 28,000 6,000 780,000 32.000 68,000 46,667 207, 300 43,000 60,000 660,000 322, 400 200,000 62,000 71,000 43.500 64,000 62, 500 48.000 31, 500 37.500 22,000 8.000 Pawcatuck River, R. I., and Conn.. Connecticut River below Hartford, Conn. H. 368, 76th Cong 72,900 Clinton Harbor, Conn.. Guilford Harbor, Conn. H. 240, 76th Cong H. 149, 77th Cong. 21,900 25,500 Projects contained in river and harbor bill (S. 35)—Continued 6,500,000 H. 342, 76th Cong. S. 17, 77th Cong.. (1). H. 555, 76th Cong. H 594, 78th Cong.. 8. 60, 77th Cong. S. 158, 77th Cong.. S. 98, 76th Cong. . 403, 77th Cong. H. 533, 78th Cong. H. 226, 76th CongH. 256, 76th Cong. Aug. 21, 1943 3 H. 319, 77th Cong. H. 337, 76th Cong. Dec. 10, 1943. H. 314, 76th Cong. H. 659, 77th Cong. H. 247, 76th Cong. H. 544, 78th Cong. H. 335, 76th Cong. H. 347, 77th Cong. H. 104, 76th Cong. H. 231, 76th Cong. H. 432, 77th Cong. (1). H. 103, 76th Cong. H. 547, 76th Cong. H. 263, 77th Cong. H. 449, 78th Cong. H. 137, 76th Cong. H. 145, 76th Cong. H. 214, 76th Cong. ().. H. 446, 78th Cong. H. 216, 76th Cong. H. 686, 77th Cong. H. 337, 77th Cong. 225,000 60, 000, 000 6,880 27,500 4,000 6,000 17,000 6,000 35,000 4,200,000 8, 000, 000 160,000 55,000 6,300 48,000 600,000 25, 500 10, 000 18,000 27,000 23, 000, 000 15, 000, 000 3,733, 000 21, 300 3,675,000 484,000 30,000 78,000 120,000 85,000 348,000 8, 500,000 830,000 127, 500 635,000 (1) 10, 290, 000 (4) (1) 11,500 88, 800 17,000 () 33,000 25, 900, 000 6, 000, 000 75,000 2,030, 635 15,000 14,000 24,000 |