Mr. BOUTIN. We can supply that for the committee. Actually, however, this list was not supplied for that purpose. It was supplied for the purpose of illustrating, on the basis of our present request, which are the projects that we do intend, providing the money is made available in fiscal 1963, which of those could be done within a 12-month period on an accelerated basis. Mr. CRAMER. I am interested in knowing which ones would qualify under the $600 million amendment, too. Kentucky, Owensboro, post office and courthouse (engineering and construction). $295,000 October 1962. Mr. CRAMER. How much of the $600 million has been discussed with you that would be made available to your agency? Mr. BOUTIN. There has been no discussion on that. Did your agency participate in the antirecession accelerated spending in 1958 under the Eisenhower administration? Do you have information on that? Mr. BOUTIN. I am sorry, but I do not. Mr. Knott, do you? Mr. KNOTT. We did not have, of course, this procedural charter in 1958. Mr. CRAMER. I realize that. That was before the 1959 act. Mr. KNOTT. As a matter of fact, we were in a hiatus between the Lease-Purchase Act, which expired in 1957, and later the Public Buildings Act of 1959. Mr. CRAMER. Was there any effort to accelerate lease-purchase Mr. KNOTT. Actually, at that point we had only 29 projects authorized, and they were all underconstruction and, so far as I am award, this was private funds. There was no unusual or extraordinary steps taken to accelerate that construction. Mr. CRAMER. How many projects have been authorized but have not as yet been funded? Mr. BOUTIN. The total amount in dollars, of $331.9 million that we have, that have been approved by the Public Works Committee for which funds have not either been asked in the current budget, the 1963 budget, or have not been funded previous to that. In number of projects, perhaps I can give that to you. Mr. CRAMER. Well, you can provide it for the record. Mr. BOUTIN. We have a substantial number though. (The information asked for follows:) GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION Construction, public buildings projects [Approved projects unfunded] Jacksonville: Federal office building. Hawaii, Honolulu: Post office and courthouse. Idaho, Boise: Courthouse and Federal office Illinois, Chicago: Federal office building.. Federal office building. Post office, courthouse, customhouse (engineering and construction). Maryland, Baltimore: Federal office building. Michigan, Detroit: Post office, courthouse (engineering and construction). Minnesota, St. Paul: Courthouse and Fed- Ohio, Cleveland: Federal office building... Harrisburg: Courthouse and Federal Philadelphia: Courthouse and Federal office building. South Carolina, Charleston: Federal office building. 2,903,000 2,811,000 Mr. CRAMER. Of course, you realize that under the provisions of this bill if the President saw fit to do so he could take funds from your unobligated appropriation Mr. BOUTIN. Yes, he could. Mr. CRAMER (continuing). And make it available to other agencies? Now, what do you think about that? Mr. BOUTIN. Well, in the discretion of the President, if this was deemed necessary we certainly would not object to it. Of course, in saying that, it must be realized that General Services is different than any other agency. Our funds are earmarked project by project. Mr. BLATNIK. For specific purposes. Mr. BOUTIN. Specifically prior to any approval of appropriations. Mr. CRAMER. But they are still Mr. BOUTIN. We are in a different situation altogether. Mr. CRAMER. There are still unobligated balances? Mr. BOUTIN. That is correct. Mr. CRAMER. And if the President should decide that those moneys should be used in other areas of public works that could be completed within a year, rather than these large projects that could not or could not be initiated in time enough, the President under the bill would have authority to allocate those funds to other areas or to this area of expenditures Mr. BOUTIN. That is correct. Mr. BLATNIK. Or he could do also this. This does not mean necessarily taking money away from their agency. He could merely give a priority to, say, a small public building where there is need for it. This also contemplates a preliminary time stage, and the decision or determination has been made. Mr. BOUTIN. I was going to say that, Mr. Chairman. I think, perhaps, very likely this would become law and exercised that the "shoe would be on the other foot." The chances are that GSA would be the recipient of funds, because we do have the capability of immediately going to work and providing jobs in many areas in the country. Mr. CRAMER. Will the chairman yield? Mr. BLATNIK. Mr. Cramer. Mr. CRAMER. As to the money that you have available now, is there any reason why, in determining where projects should go, one of the elements should not be unemployment? Could you not channel presently off some of the projects without any authorization? Mr. BOUTIN. Of course, this is not within our present criteria, Congressman. Right, as it is now we have to look at relative urgency only on the basis of need, and the economics involved, and we do not, in any way, look at it from the viewpoint of labor surplus areas or any other criteria. Our criteria is very clear cut. Mr. CRAMER. Have you got any recommendations from the Area Redevelopment Administration that you go ahead with public works construction in given areas of unemployment, that they have studied and found to be unemployment areas or depressed areas? Mr. BOUTIN. Well, we have cooperated very closely with ARA, not on this specific point of recommending or telling us where we are to put buildings Mr. CRAMER. I am suggesting that Mr. BOUTIN. We are working with ARA within the areas where they are trying to do something, particularly under the surplus proper When we have available a manufacturing plant, they work very hard with the local community and GSA, trying to work out a method of putting that back into productive use. It also applies to surplus military bases-any property of this type. They have been very helpful to us and most cooperative. Mr. BALDWIN. Mr. Chairman ? Mr. BLATNIK. Mr. Baldwin. Mr. BALDWIN. Mr. Boutin, I have one question: Of the amounts appropriated last year, and other previous years for construction or alteration of buildings, what amount as of now is unobligated? Mr. BOUTIN. As of right now, unobligated in the principal areas of our appropriation or do you want to limit it to construction? Mr. BALDWIN. Well, the whole works, first. Mr. BOUTIN. Well, as far as operating expenses, public building services, out of a total available of $169.9 million we have $43.9 million available for the balance of the fiscal year. Mr. BALDWIN. Do you have a breakdown just for construction and alteration and public buildings? Mr. BOUTIN. Yes; I can give you that. On construction of public buildings, including what we had carried over in previous years, and with the cycle that we have, that this committee is very familiar with, we always have a certain amount of carryover, depending upon acquisition of site, and much of this is delayed because we are waiting for urban renewal areas to open up, for local civic centers and so forth, we had atotal available of $254,834,082. We have obligated through the 28th of February $20,609,552, leaving a balance unobligated, as of the 28th, of $234,224,530. We have a breakdown of exactly when we are going to obligate the balance by project. We are going to obligate, to make it concise, between now and the 30th of June, $118,079,350. We are going to obligate after the end of this fiscal year, but from funds currently available, $101,797,400. And then, divided between these two figures, we have a reserve for contingencies of $14,347,780. It will be just about an even division of reserve for contingencies. Mr. BALDWIN. Now, could I ask this question? In view of the message which we received from the President on Monday, stating that there is an urgent need for additional expenditures at this time, in order to combat unemployment, are you taking any specific action to speed up the scheduling of the obligation of these unobligated funds? Mr. BOUTIN. Congressman, there is not a day that goes by, as my fellow employees down at GSA would tell you, that I am not urging them to get things done even before the request of the President came out. We try to do these things as timely as we possibly can, but there are many things that enter into it. One of the projects, just as an illustration-we have 12 projects that we are not going to fund until after the end of this fiscal year. For example, a border station at Lubec, Maine, the reason that we are not going to obligate the construction funds this fiscal year is that there is a new highway going through there. We were waiting for the location of that highway to select a site. We have just recently worked out the arrangements with the State of Maine's Department of Highways who have, in turn, working with our people determined an area where we can locate the facility. So many things, like urban renewal areas, and so forth, delay our projects. We are dependent upon others before we can select a site. We have to wait upon them. Site selection is the biggest impediment to an orderly phasing of the projects and acceleration of the date for beginning construction. Mr. BALDWIN. Thank you. Mr. CRAMER. Will the gentleman yield? Mr. BALDWIN. Yes. Mr. CRAMER. You have $234 million to be obligated in the future for construction. Right? Mr. BOUTIN. We have $234 million which was unobligated as of February 28. Mr. CRAMER. I think it would be of interest to the committee to know which of those projects are within depressed areas or area redevelopment areas and, thus, of course, where they would help the unemployment situation, without any further action by Congress. Mr. BOUTIN. We can supply that for the record. (The information follows:) Construction, public buildings projects-Scheduled to be obligated Feb. 28– June 30, 1962 REDEVELOPMENT AREA SEC. 5(a) CATEGORY Michigan: Detroit, Immigration and Naturalization Service headquarters (engineering and construction). Wyandotte, post office, etc. (engineering and construction).... Pennsylvania: Johnstown, post office, etc. (engineering and construction). |