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.

Senator ELLENDER. But will you be able to spend it from now to June 30?

ANTICIPATED UNEXPENDED BALANCE

General POTTER. I will end the year with $24 million unexpended. Senator ELLENDER. Why?

General POTTER. Let us say $20 million of the $24 million, because I cannot spend it. The work cannot be done that fast.

Senator ELLENDER. But it is not because of the debt ceiling appropriation?

General POTTER. As far as I am concerned, not entirely.

Senator THYE. That is what I want to get clear. It is still discretional, but your projects have not been developed to the point where you could reasonably expend that amount of money, because from the first of the year on through to the end of the fiscal year it is your discretion what you do with the money.

General POTTER. Within limit.

Senator THYE. So that, with the funds available and with the projects you have approved, the expenditure is within your discretion. General POTTER. Yes. May I give you my history in the Missouri River division? It is this: A general figure was given me as to what my expenditures ceiling for the year should be. I protested on one project and was given a greater ceiling. I think we went from $109 million, say, to $111 million for the division. That then was the limit that, I felt, my instructions caused me not to exceed for the year, $111 million for the division. As to whether I could spend more than $111 million, I can only say that as of now it looks like I might be able to exceed it by some $4 to $5 million, might have the ability to exceed it by some $4 to $5 million, but I could not cause the expenditure of all of the moneys I had, because contractors do have to have some carryover to carry them into the next year until appropriations are made available.

Senator CASE. Where were you in 1946?

General POTTER. In the Kansas City district, sir.
Senator CASE. And where were you in 1948?

General POTTER. I left Kansas City in April and went to Alaska, sir. I was in Alaska 1 year.

Senator CASE. Do you recall that in either 1946 or 1948 or about that period the President froze funds which had been appropriated to the Army engineers for expenditures?

General POTTER. Yes.

Senator CASE. Was that in a substantial amount?

General PoTTER. Yes.

Senator CASE. In other words, during that period of time there was an action by the executive branch of the Government which did exactly what Senator Thye referred to; that is to say, thwarted the will of the Congress to make appropriations; and they froze those funds and held them in the Treasury. How much did you have carried over on June 30, 1953?

General POTTER. $67.9 million.

Senator CASE. During the hearings of this committee a year ago, did you not report to the committee the anticipated carryover on June 30?

General POTTER. Yes.

Senator CASE. Did the committee not take that into consideration in its appropriations so as to provide funds for a flow of work that would be within the capacity of the Engineers to accomplish? General POTTER. Yes.

FORT RANDALL

Senator YOUNG. When will you start generating current at Fort Randall?

sir.

General POTTER. March 15 is a set date for the pushing of the button,

Senator YOUNG. That is behind schedule, is it not?

General POTTER. Yes, it is. Our first predictions about a year half ago were November of this

year.

and a

Senator YOUNG. That is fairly close. When do you expect to start generating current at Garrison?

General POTTER. April 1955, sir.

GARRISON DAM

Senator YOUNG. Let me ask you a few questions about your funds for Garrison. You have some money for fish and wildlife facilities listed here? Will there be funds for that purpose?

General POTTER. There will be some for tree planting and, I believe, for some access roads.

Senator YOUNG. How much will there be for tree planting? I have been interested in that part of the program for a long time because we are destroying most of the wildlife habitat. We should start planting the trees to replace at least a small part.

General POTTER. I might say, Senator Young, in both Randall and Garrison, the particular projects about which you are asking, tree planting, access roads, and so on, the program is worked out with the State people, not in the amount they would like, but the amounts that we can allocate are arrived at by working with the States. It is $22,000 for tree planting in 1955, sir.

Senator YOUNG. I do not think that is sufficient, but it is a start. Do you plan to start construction of dikes around Williston and Trenton?

General POTTER. Funds for work in the vicinity of Williston in this budget are: construction 0; land acquisition 1,555,000; and planning 414,300.

This work does include some activity for subsurface investigations, bore holes and test pits.

Senator YOUNG. For fiscal year 1955?

General POTTER. Yes.

Senator ELLENDER. Has that question been settled, as to the height of the dikes?

General POTTER. The last Congress in the Senate report required the Corps of Engineers to furnish this committee with reports on the protection of Williston and the irrigation districts and plans for their construction. Those plans have been presented to the clerk of the committee and the report also.

Senator YOUNG. Are there any other questions? I think you said that you planned to go ahead with the land-acquisition program above elevation 1840 under this flood-control project?