Chicago and Kansas City, this was the first year that wheat has not moved downstream in rather large volume.

Senator CASE. Do you not also have a study underway between

Yankton and Sioux City?

General POTTER. There is a study underway; yes.

Senator CASE. That is based on a 9-foot depth?

General POTTER. I believe it was a 9-foot channel; yes.

Senator CASE. What is the state of that survey?

General POTTER. I do not believe any date has been set on it, sir. It is more or less in abeyance, since the river from Omaha to Sioux City had no work done on it since 1949.

Senator CASE. Are there funds currently available for that study? General POTTER. No, sir.

Senator CASE. Do you have some study money in the estimate for river and harbor surveys that could encompass that, or would that be a matter of allocation?

General POTTER. A matter of allocation.

Senator YOUNG. Would it be possible and feasible to change the upstream dams like Fort Randall, Oahe, and Garrison so as to permit navigation sometime in the future if it was desired? Would it be a great undertaking, in other words, to provide navigation facilities. at these dams?

General POTTER. It would be expensive, Senator. I have always felt that the kind of produce that we would move on those lakes, and there are 3 of them that are about 200 miles long, the bulk produce that we produce in the upper basin, would be subject to transfer around the dams from one barge system to another barge system until we got down to Yankton and then it would go into a final series of barges.

Senator YOUNG. It would be transfered around the dam itself. General POTTER. Yes. I thought particularly of oil, for instance, that might move.

Senator CASE. I was discussing that particular subject the other day and it was suggested that both on oil and wheat it would be possible so far as downstream traffic is concerned to move it down in tubes. over the face of the dam.

General POTTER. Yes, that is right; also what we call a Marine Railway could be used or a conveyor belt.

Senator CASE. You believe a conveyor belt for moving commodities up over the face of the dam is feasible in this area?

General POTTER. The length of these pools, say, 100 miles plus, is long enough to justify the existence of a navigation facility. Senator CASE. Particularly when there is no parallel rail line? General POTTER. Oh, yes.

Senator ELLENDER. General, reverting to navigation up to Omaha, will it be necessary to spend much money to maintain the channel to 6 or 612 to 7 feet other than your ability to control the water so as to attain this depth from 6 to 7 feet?

General POTTER. Yes. Until we have arrived at the 9-foot depth and until all of the banks are stabilized the maintenance is a consider-able amount, Senator Ellender.

Senator ELLENDER. Is it not a fact that by controlling the waters in the upper reaches of the Missouri, you can better maintain the stream. in a given location?

General POTTER. Absolutely.

Senator ELLENDER. Before that it would spread all over and it was possible for the river to change its course overnight?

General POTTER. Yes.

Senator ELLENDER. So you have lessened that so that the works you have put in now will be more or less permanent and will be of use for navigation.

General POTTER. It is the fluctuation of the water that ruins the channel.

Senator ELLENDER. I understand, but all of that has been prevented by virtue of this control that the Corps of Engineers has been able to effectuate in the past.

General POTTER. That is right, sir.

Senator ELLENDER. I do not want to anticipate you, General, but before you get through I wonder if you could tell us what the situation is as to each dam, how much completed and other pertinent information. If you cannot do it now I would like to have that in the record.

General POTTER. I have all that data here.

Senator ELLENDER. You have data for each of those dams that we are now working on, on the Missouri and tributaries on up to Fort Peck?

General POTTER. We will furnish a tabulation showing that, sir. (The information referred to follows:)

DAM AND PRESENT STATUS

Fort Peck: This project is essentially complete including the present powerplant of 85,000 kilowatts. The second powerplant of 80,000 kilowatts additional is in the planning stage.

Garrison: This project is about 63-percent complete. Closure was completed in 1953 and first power is scheduled for April 1955. All major contracts for the dam are awarded except for the spillway stilling basin.

Oahe: This project is about 4 percent complete. Several earthwork contracts have been completed and one is underway. A contract for the upstream tunnels is underway. Closure is scheduled for 1958 with first power in late 1961.

Fort Randall: This project is about 75-percent complete. Closure was made in 1952 and first power is scheduled for March 1954. All major contracts for the dam have been awarded.

Gavins Point: This project is about 22-percent complete. All of the work on the dam has been awarded except for the powerhouse superstructure and switchyard which will be awarded later this year. Closure is scheduled in 1955 and first power in October 1956.

OBLIGATIONS AND EXPENDITURES

General POTTER. The last item I have, sir is on the general figure of obligations and expenditures. On June 30, 1953, we had unobligated $152 million; on December 31, 1953, $23 million; and we predict June 30, 1954, zero to $5 million unobligated.

As to our expenditures, on June 30, 1953, my unexpended balance was $67.9 million; on December 31, 1953, $67.2 million; and on June 30, 1954, $24.6 million. I would like to call the committee's attention to the fact that on December 31, 1953, we had spent all of my appropriation and from then until June, I will be running on the carryover and the carryover will be reduced to $24.6 million. We started out the fiscal year after appropriations with about $135 million. Our

expenditures ceiling was set at $111 million, and we may be able to get by with just that amount of expenditure. It may be that we might go over a couple million more. The $24.6 million is a controlled figure as against the figure that we would have arrived at purely by all-out operations.

That ends my general statement, Mr. Chairman.

Senator YOUNG. I would like to ask a question there, General. You mentioned your expenditure ceiling and that the total funds available to you amounted to $135 million.

General POTTER. The appropriation plus my carryover, sir.

EXPENDITURE CEILING

Senator YOUNG. A ceiling of how much was placed upon you? General POTTER. $111 million. That was my apportionment of the total civil-works-expenditures ceiling.

Senator YOUNG. Who placed a ceiling on it?

General POTTER. I believe the Bureau of the Budget. The Bureau of the Budget asked for a reduction in expenditures and that was arrived at in the Chief's office and my apportionment of it was the amount given.

Senator YOUNG. When did that ceiling go into effect?

General POTTER. About August, sir.

Senator ELLENDER. General, I was going to ask along the same line that Senator Young requested. What was the amount that you asked of the Budget for all of these projects on the Missouri Basin, which would include, I presume, all of these dams that we have been talking about?

General POTTER. I have a tabulation on that, sir. The Office of the Chief of Engineers requested a total of $75,775,000 within ceiling, and $24 million over ceiling for all projects in the Missouri Basin. The budget as presented is $73,350,000.

Senator ELLENDER. You are just about $3 million under your request?

General POTTER. About $2.4 million within ceiling, sir.

Senator ELLENDER. You certainly fared better than we did in the lower Mississippi there. The request there was for $70 million and we got $45 million. Was it left to you to apportion the amount finally made available?

General POTTER. No, sir.

Senator ELLENDER. Who did it? I am talking about the amount that you were told you could spend there. You said $73 million-odd. There was a cut of almost $3 million and then it was left to you to pinch away from this project or that project a sufficient sum so as to reduce it to the amount given you in the budget?

General POTTER. If I can approach it this way, Senator Ellender, the Chief's office and the Division work very closely in arriving at a figure for each project, more or less by negotiation, and that summation came out to be $75,775,000. This is for 1955, sir, the budget we are considering now.

Senator CASE. Are we not confusing two pictures here. What General Potter was first talking about was the expenditure rate during the current fiscal year. What he has just given to Senator Ellender I think relates to the estimates and request for the next fiscal year. General PoTTER. Yes.

Senator ELLENDER. I am not interested in what we have already appropriated. I am sure you are going to spend that as we intended. I am talking about the next year.

General POTTER. Those are the figures I have given you, sir. Senator ELLENDER. Your final budget figure is less than $3 million under what you requested.

General POTTER. Within ceiling, yes, that is right.

Senator ELLENDER. Did you ask for more than that?

General POTTER. There was an overceiling amount which we are permitted to request, but of which we get very little normally. Senator ELLENDER. How much was that?

General POTTER. That was $24 million, sir.

Senator ELLENDER. You mean more than you got!
General POTTER. Yes.

Senator ELLENDER. In distributing the amount that you actually will receive for 1955 you are the one that apportions that?

General POTTER. The Chief of Engineers finally set the amount, but they are amounts that we recommended.

Senator ELLENDER. In other words, the Bureau of the Budget did not do it; you did it?

General POTTER. No, sir; we did it.

Senator CASE. The earlier question which Senator Ellender asked with respect to the Bureau of the Budget, the ceiling on expenditures, that was placed on you by the Bureau of the Budget, was it not?

General POTTER. I believe the Chief of Engineers apportioned the figures.

Senator CASE. But the ceiling for expenditures by the Corps of Engineers was placed by the Bureau of the Budget, or by whom?

General POTTER. I would like to ask Mr. Cohen to give the answer because he is from the Chief's office.

ESTABLISHMENT OF CEILING

Mr. COHEN. Senator Case, the initial step was taken by the Bureau of the Budget to reduce expenditures in 1954. As a result of that, the Chief of Engineers and the Secretary of the Army arrived at an expenditure target which they hope to keep within during the fiscal year.

Senator CASE. And that was last August?

Mr. COHEN. Yes, sir.

Senator CASE. That was following the refusal of the Senate to accept the bill passed by the House to raise the debt limit; was it not? General POTTER. I believe it was subsequent to that, yes.

Senator CASE. You may or may not know, but it was my understanding that the Secretary of the Treasury, following this refusal of the Senate to act on the debt ceiling bill, then was obliged to ask the several agencies of the Government to curtail or limit their expenditures so that he would not run out of cash.

General POTTER. That is right.

Senator CASE. It is my understanding that about 40 percent of the Federal funds come out of the last half of the calendar year or the first half of the fiscal year, that about 60 percent of them come during the first half of the calendar year or the last half of the fiscal year,

that is, over the March 15 period. Was any statement of that kind made to you as the reason for limiting your cash expenditures?

General POTTER. It was my general understanding that that was the reasoning back of it, Senator.

Senator CASE. So the fact that you will have $24.6 million unexpended, but mostly all obligated by the 30th of June, is a reflection of this effort to hold down the actual cash expenditures?

General POTTER. Yes.

Senator ELLENDER. How can you say that when you had a greater unexpended balance the year before?

General POTTER. I did not get the import of your question, sir.

STATUTORY DEBT LIMIT

Senator ELLENDER. You say you did not spend the money or obligate it because you feared that it would increase the debt limit over $275 billion, which is the statutory amount. The year previous, as I understood you, you said that you had how much more unobligated? General POTTER. The experience the year before, sir, when we ended the year with some $67 million unexpended was largely due to an accumulation over several years, and I believe I said last year one project had been overappropriated in the preceding year.

Senator ELLENDER. Is it your judgment or view that the $24 million that will not be spent is due to the fact that if it were spent it would tend to go through the budget ceiling, the $275 billion?

General POTTER. I do not know that, sir. All I know is that my ceiling of $111 million is my goal for the year.

Senator ELLENDER. You were not prevented from spending the $24 million, were you, that you were going to carry over?

General POTTER. I believe I might have spent $5 million more, maybe; not all of that.

Senator ELLENDER. But the fact that you have not spent it was not due to the fact that it would have a tendency of going through the ceiling limitation?

General POTTER. Not entirely; no, sir.

Senator THYE. Mr. Chairman, that was the point that I want to get completely cleared. It was discretional on your part whether you obligated all those funds or did not?

General POTTER. Spend it.

Senator THYE. Or expend it; yes. That was entirely discretional on your part. It was not contingent upon what our fiscal policy or indebtedness was?

General POTTER. No, sir.

Senator YOUNG. Was there not a ceiling placed on you by the Bureau of the Budget?

General POTTER. By the Chief of Engineers.

Senator CASE. And in turn on the Chief of Engineers by the Bureau of the Budget.

General POTTER. I believe the Secretary of the Army, and beyond that I do not know.

Senator CASE. I think it is a matter of record that, following the failure of the Senate to raise the debt limit, the Bureau of the Budget requested that they should seek and curtail their cash requirements during the first 6 months of the year. In that respect, Mr. Cohen? Mr. COHEN. I believe that is correct.