and a draft of a proposed provision affecting an existing appropriation, for the Department of Agriculture for the fiscal year 1944. The amounts recommended provide overtime for the additional employees allowed. The items are as follows: FOREST SERVICE SALARIES AND EXPENSES National forest protection and management: For an additional amount for national forest protection and management, fiscal year 1944, including the objects specified under this head in the Department of Agriculture Appropriation Act, 1944---- $145,000 At the time the 1944 Budget was approved, it was estimated that the volume of timber sale business would increase in the amount of 220,000,000 board feet over the volume cut in the fiscal year 1943, and on the basis of that estimate an increase of $165,000 was granted to the Forest Service to handle the increased volume of business. During the first 6 months of the present fiscal year, the amount of timber cut on the national forests has exceeded the cut of the first 6 months of the fiscal year 1943 by 421,487,000 board feet. For the fiscal year 1944, it is now estimated that the timber cut will exceed that of the fiscal year 1943 by approximately 863,537,000 board feet. The Forest Service has been extremely hard-pressed in administering this expanded volume of timber sale business. In many cases allotments which had been set aside for spring timber sale work have already been drawn upon. Under these conditions it is necessary to recommend that an estimate for a supplemental appropriation be submitted to the Congress in the amount of $145,000 to enable the Forest Service to administer its timber sale business throughout the fiscal year 1944. Fighting forest fires: For an additional amount for fighting forest fires, fiscal year 1944. $1, 535, 000 Because of the impossibility of determining definitely in advance the amount of funds required during any fiscal year for fighting and preventing fires in the national forests, the annual appropriation act for the Department of Agriculture for a number of years past has provided only the nominal sum of $100,000 for this purpose, and the practice has been to supplement this sum to the extent actually required by the temporary use of funds appropriated for general expense purposes of the Forest Service. After the close of the forestfire season each year, estimates have been submitted and Congress has appropriated the funds needed to reimburse these general expense appropriations. The purpose of this supplemental estimate of appropriation is to provide similar reimbursement for expenditures actually incurred by the Forest Service since July 1, 1943, and to provide for estimated expenditures during the remainder of the fiscal year 1944. Climatic conditions on the national forests during the normal 1943 fire season were favorable. The fall rains, however, which usually terminate the fire season in most sections of the West in early September did not materialize, with the result that the season was prolonged into October and November. Obligations for fighting forest fires during October and November exceeded the obligations incurred during July and August by over $50,000, illustrating the abnormality of the fire season of 1943. The estimate of $1,535,000 may be summarized as follows: Expenditures, July 1 to Dec. 31, 1943, for fire suppression and fireprevention in the national forests. Expenditures, July 1 to Dec. 31, 1943, for fire suppression and prevention on unappropriated public lands. Estimated expenditures, Jan. 1 to June 30, 1944, in the national forests Estimated expenditures, Jan. 1 to June 30, 1944, on unappropriated public lands. Total Less amount available from 1944 appropriation___ $1, 136, 125 85, 475 386, 000 27, 400 1, 635, 000 100, 000 Basis for estimate.. 1,535, 000 COMMODITY CREDIT CORPORATION Salaries and administration expenses: For an additional amount for salaries and administrative expenses of the Commodity Credit Corporation, fiscal year 1944, including the objects specified under this head in the Department of Agriculture Appropriation Act, 1944, $349,000, payable from the funds of said Corporation. The 1944 Budget estimate was based upon the activities that could be financed by the Commodity Credit Corporation under its then existing bond authorization of $2,650,000,000. Subsequent to the action of Congress on the 1944 Budget, the bond authorization of the Corporation was increased to $3,000,000,000. The present estimate of $349,000 for salaries and administrative expenses results from the requirements incident to the expanded lending and purchase activities under the increased bond authorization. Illustrative of the newly initiated programs are: American-Egyptian cottonseed loan and purchase program; flax straw reserve loan program; requisitioning of idle farm machinery; hay and pasture seeds loan program; sugar beet price support program; canning vegetable price support program; cotton linters purchase program; sweetpotato price support program; raisin purchase and sale program; dairy feed payment program; hay for drought States; freight equalization programs on apples, onions, and citrus fruits; and two corn price guaranty programs. In addition to the new programs initiated, it has been necessary to expand activities dealing with feed wheat sales, vegetable oils, and Alaska spruce logs, as well as to handle a larger volume of cotton loans than previously had been anticipated. The transfer of the foreign purchase work to the Foreign Economic Administration, effective January 1, 1944, pursuant to Executive Order 9385, has had the effect of reducing the total amount otherwise required for administrative expenses of the Corporation for the current fiscal year. No provision has been made in this supplemental estimate for administrative expenses in connection with the dairy feed payment. program, the continuation of which beyond February 1, 1944, is subject to congressional approval. AGRICULTURAL ADJUSTMENT AGENCY CONSERVATION AND USE OF AGRICULTURAL LAND RESOURCES, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE The text of the appropriation for "Conservation and Use of Agricultural Land Resources, Department of Agriculture" contained in the Department of Agriculture Appropriation Act, 1944, is hereby amended by striking therefrom the words and figures "December 31, 1943, inclusive", appearing immediately preceding the first proviso clause, and inserting in lieu thereof the words and figures "June 30, 1944, inclusive". For the past several years each agricultural appropriation act, under the appropriation item "Conservation and use of agricultural land resources," has provided funds for the agricultural conservation programs for two or more program (calendar) years. For example, the agricultural appropriation act for 1944 appropriates $400,000,000 for the program ending December 31, 1943, and authorizes the use of a part of such funds to purchase fertilizers, seeds, and other conservation materials to be applied to the soil principally in the spring of 1944. The program ending on December 31, 1943, is known as the "1943 agricultural conservation program," whereas the materials applied after January 1, 1944, were intended for inclusion in the 1944 agricultural conservation program. The present 1945 Budget as submitted to the Congress implies that hereafter the conservation materials applied in the spring of the year will constitute the completion of a program rather than a commencement of a program. In other words, rather than end the 1944 conservation program on December 31, 1944, it is proposed to extend it to June 30, 1945. In place of waiting until a year from now to establish the program year on the foregoing basis, it is now proposed to establish it on that basis immediately by amending the present "1943 agricultural conservation program" (which ended on December 31, 1943), so as to include as a part thereof the conservation materials applied and to be applied to the soil during the period January 1 to June 30, 1944. To accomplish this, the date "December 31, 1943," appearing on page 28, line 16, of the item "Conservation and use of agricultural land resources" of the Department of Agriculture Appropriation Act, 1944 (Public Law 129), will have to be changed to "June 30, 1944." Failure to extend the 1943 program to June 30, 1944, will result in inequities as follows: 1. As authorized in the 1944 Appropriation Act, conservation materials consisting of lime, fertilizer, seed, and services, in relatively large quantities, have been advanced to farmers against the 1944 program. In many instances such materials have already been applied, and services rendered in the entire northeast region and in several other areas. These materials and services cannot be recalled or reduced. As a consequence, farmers in other areas who have not received such advances will be penalized to the extent that funds will not be available to furnish them with assistance in like quantities for identical purposes. The $300,000,000 authorized for the 1944 program by the Congress will have to be spread over a period 6 months longer than the period presumably intended in the congressional program limitation. This will result in a material reduction in the rates of cash payments, since it is impossible at this late date to reduce rates of advances of conservation materials and services for which commitments have already been made. Farmers who receive the bulk of their payments in cash will therefore be penalized. 3. Because of variations in cropping practices and differences in the conception of crop years as among the several sections of the country, the program year has not heretofore terminated coincidentally in all areas. As a consequence, failure to extend the 1943 program to June 30, 1944, will result in a disadvantage to the farmers who did not receive payments prior to December 31, 1943; that is, such farmers will receive a 1944 payment comparable to those in other sections of the country but will be unable to receive materials and services as an advance against the 1944 program and, hence, they will receive only one payment instead of the two payments which would be received by the farmers in the areas where the 1943 program ended prior to December 31, 1943. The foregoing supplemental estimates of appropriations and the proposed provision are made necessary by reason of contingencies which have arisen since the submission of the Budget for the fiscal year 1944. I recommend that they be submitted to Congress. Very respectfully, PAUL H. APPLEBY, Acting Director of the Bureau of the Budget. O |