Senator CAPEHART. You mean that is under the so-called Wherry Act? Mr. EVANS. Yes. The terms of this act should be extended and expanded in line with the proposed amendment being considered by your committee. By so doing, an economical solution to an immediate and pressing problem will result. Overseas, two procedures for obtaining housing are available. Under the first, the rental guarantee plan, 410 houses have been obtained by the Air Force in its 3 years of operation; 616 more are under construction. Although the basis exists to obtain most of the housing required by the employment of this plan, current restrictions on the rental guarantee period have severely restricted the plan's operation. These restrictions must be eliminated. The other procedure available for the acquisition of overseas housing is covered by recent legislation authorizing the employment of certain funds generated by the sale of surplus commodities in friendly foreign countries. Unfortunately, this legislation, enacted in July 1954, has to date failed to produce any funds in any country where our forces have a military housing requirement that comes under the category available for such housing. The American Legion supports and strongly urges the passage of S. 1501. We believe that the provisions of this proposed amendment to the National Housing Act will go farther than any other previous measure in insuring the construction and availability of housing to those individuals entitled to such benefits. The immediate need is for about 119,000 units. As additional bases are constructed and as some of the Air Force's present housing outlives its useful life, the need will exceed 160,000 units. The American Legion commends the work of your committee in its interest in this vital legislation. We believe the need for military housing has simply fallen behind the actual needs generated by the expansion of our military forces since the beginning of World War II. The effectiveness of this force is closely related to the morale of its members. Enactment of S. 1501 will provide an immeasurable stimulus in the maintenance of a high morale. Failure to take remedial action will only result in a low reenlistment rate, resignation of trained officers and a high incidence in the breakup of service families. The issue at stake is not trivial in nature. It is a matter of military life at the family level of those simple and honest things a man must have if he is to do a challenging job, under strain, and still hold his family together. I am certain that if the living conditions of these men are raised to the American standard, the attractiveness of military service life will be assured. Senator MONRONEY. Thank you very much for your statement, Mr. Evans. Senator Capehart? Senator CAPEHART. I do not think I have any questions, Mr. Evans. I congratulate you upon your statement. I agree with you 100 percent. I think it is one of the pressing problems facing this Congressto figure out ways and means of adequate housing for the married men and women who have dependents in the service. There is nothing, to my mind, that would do more for morale or that is more needed than this. It is just a question of finding some way to do it. And we feel S. 1501 is one way of doing it. There may be other ways. There may be better ways. If there are, let's find them and put them to use. At the moment I know of no better way to do it. Mr. OLSON. Mr. Chairman and Senator Capehart, I think the confusion arose possibly from the article in the Congressional Record of March 18 which was submitted by you at the time the bill was introduced. Senator CAPEHART. Yes. Mr. OLSON. It refers on page 2660 to the authority given the military to assign personnel to quarters in these units just as it otherwise. would assign public quarters. This means that the quarters allowances, whether they be $90, the average monthly quarters allowance, or $170 the monthly quarters allowance for general officers, will be withheld from assigned personnel and used to make periodic payments on the principal and interest of the mortgages outstanding, et cetera. On the following page you say that authority is given the appropriate secretaries to lease any land held by the United States to an eligible builder and also to assign quarters to military personnel, withholding from the quarters allowance of the personnel so assigned. Then those who receive no quarters allowance apparently were eliminated. But that is not the intent as I understand it. Senator CAPEHART. Of course, you understand, on something as big as this and as complex as this, you never quite hit it right when you first write legislation. Mr. OLSON. I understand. Senator CAPEHART. The best you can do is introduce legislation with a general principle, and then you amend it as you go along, learning from witnesses and others who have the facts and who know. Because in writing legislation you cannot call in everybody and arrive at the proper way to word the legislation when you write it. The purpose of our hearings, of course, is to listen to you gentlemen and then correct any proposed legislation to make it practical and sensible and workable. We are finding, since we originally introduced the bill and wrote it, many things that we now feel ought to be changed. But the general principle is the same, and that is getting houses. We have not changed that principle at all. Mr. OLSON. We feel that Senator CAPEHART. We are changing some of the details. Mr. OLSON. It is a very fine move, and we certainly pledge our support to the measure. Senator MONRONEY. Would you think, Mr. Evans, it would be wise at the same time to extend title 9 to get housing in the community, privately built housing off-base? There will always be these out-ofthe-way areas I am experiencing it with some SAC bases in Oklahoma-where they like to locate away from the crowded centers. The servicemen who cannot find places on the base, men who are married and who have families, and also the civilian population that is drawn there to service these bases have to have more housing. Mr. EVANS. Right. Senator MONRONEY. This allows it to be built under regular FHA procedures with only a 10-percent equity in it instead of the 20 percent. Mr. EVANS. That is right. Senator MONRONEY. In exchange for that they have to limit it to costs, and the rental must be within the range of payment ability of most of the men on the base. They guarantee to hold it for 3 years at least, or 2 years, in a rental status. Mr. EVANS. Correct. Senator MONRONEY. Do you feel we need to extend that title maybe another year or two? Mr. EVANS. I agree with you that I think we do. Senator MONRONEY. Because everybody in FHA around this town seems to think we are all through with our base-building, but particularly your airbases are in a continuous state of addition and change. Mr. EVANS. I agree with you entirely. Senator CAPEHART. We can extend it, and if it is not needed they do not need to use it. Senator MONRONEY. I say they have not used it very much. It has been the most tightly held program I have ever seen for defense housing, and you have just got to prove there are 10,000 people waiting for each house almost before you can get an allocation for a community that is trying to make good on its pledge at the time that the airbase was located in that community that they would do the building necessary for the maintenance of base personnel. Mr. EVANS. I agree with you. As I mention in my report here, the latter part of last year I made a survey trip as a Reserve officer in uniform of many bases in this country and many overseas bases. Unfortunately, this does not apply to the overseas bases. But I think the living conditions in many of those areas are deplorable. And while I personally must admit I did not like living in a tent in World War II, I certainly would hate like hell to live in a tent during time of peace. Senator CAPEHART. That is the point. You can and you will and you should and you must and you do put up with anything when you are actually at war. Mr. EVANS. That is right. Senator CAPEHART. But do you agree with me that a large percentage-I do not know what percentage it is, but it is a large percentage of the folks back home, that is, the fathers, mothers, and relatives of these servicemen, the relatives of the serviceman and his wife, are constantly saying to him, "Why don't you get out of there? Why do you put up with this sort of thing? You have to put up with no place to live, no place for the children." Mr. EVANS. That is right. Senator CAPEHART. They constantly tell them, "Why don't you get out?" I do not know what the percentage is, but it is a big percentage. Mr. EVANS. It is a very big percentage. I think it contributes to the breakup of family life, which I think is very, very important in our country right now. And I think this question of reenlistment is being pennywise and pound-foolish, because in the Air Force particularly, in this technical and technological age, it costs a lot of money to train even a GI you might say. He is an expert in highly complicated equipment. When he quits, it is going to cost us a lot of money to train another fellow. Senator CAPEHART. That is right. And it is true, too, in the Navy and Army. Mr. EVANS. Yes; it is. Senator CAPEHART. Because this is a technical army. My good ness, the knowledge you have to have to run radar and electronics and tanks is really something. Mr. EVANS. If you do not get them to reenlist, you do not get any return on your investment. Senator MONRONEY. Senator Payne, do you have any questions? Senator PAYNE. I have nothing except to commend the statement that has been issued here. I am glad to see that you want to see the continuance of the present program as well as the adoption of this one that is contained in S. 1501. Mr. EVANS. Thank you very much. Senator PAYNE. I know a lot of men in the Air Force. I happen to be a Reserve officer myself with the Air Force. I know a lot of them who are just not going to stay in the service because these new bases, and particularly the ones you spoke of, Senator, the SAC bases, are way outside of communities as a general rule, because of the type of operation. Unless there are facilities there for those families and those people, it is just a deterrent to those men reenlisting when the time comes up. Mr. EVANS. That is right. Senator CAPEHART. I get some arguments here that it ought to be done by direct appropriations. Yet, but we can use both. We can appropriate money for appropriated houses and use this too. We can use the one that gets the job done. We have had the Wherry Act now for a number of years, and I believe 87,000 units have been built under it, and yet we had direct appropriations for building a certain number of military houses in the United States and throughout the world. We can have both. We can use both. That is what you do in a business. A businessman uses both. He pays cash, and then he buys things on time, or he puts out a mortgage, or he puts out a bond issue. Senator PAYNE. But appropriated housing will never get this job done in time. Senator CAPEHART. You will never get the money appropriated. Let's get the job done and argue about the details of it or argue about whether it is going to cost a little more or a little less later, I do not understand that argument anyway. It is all being paid for out of the quarters allowances or out of the rents. It is not costing the Government anything. Mr. EVANS. That is correct. Because the money we appro priate for the quarters allowances belongs to the man. Mr. EVANS. That is right. Senator CAPEHART. Are you going to take it away from him? You might as well make the same argument that every time a serviceman buys an automobile he is buying it out of appropriated funds. Or you might as well argue that every time I spend part of the $22,500 I get now that I am spending it out of appropriated funds. Well, I am. My salary had to be appropriated, and the salary of every serviceman is appropriated, and he spends it. These quarters allowances are a part of his compensation at the moment they pay it to him, and he can go out if he wants to and rent a $200-a-month house, or he can rent a $10-a-month house. If his allowance is $90, he saves $80. If he pays $200, it costs him $110 out of his own pocket in addition to his allowance. Mr. EVANS. That is right. Senator CAPEHART. So I do not get the argument at all. Let's get these houses. There was a time when World War II ended when we needed houses badly for the men returning from the service. We got them. They are there today. Now, what we need are good houses for the boys staying in the service or who are coming into the service. That is what we need now. That is the paramount need at the moment. So let's get the job done. Senator MONRONEY. Do you have any further questions? Senator CAPEHART. No. Senator MONRONEY. Thank you again, Mr. Evans and Mr. Olson. We have one more witness. The next witness is Mr. E. S. Emerson representing the College and University Finance Associates. Mr. Emerson. Senator CAPEHART. May I make this statement, Mr. Chairman. I may have to leave before you finish. If I do, that does not mean I am not interested in what you have to say, but I have got to go to the floor to get through a bill that has to do with Fanny May. That is part of the Housing Act. It is the fourth bill to be taken up on the calendar after 12 o'clock. I am going to go over there to help Senator Sparkman, who is out of the city. He has asked me to do it. Mr. EMERSON. Surely. Senator PAYNE. Mr. Chairman, I may also have to do that. Senator MONRONEY. We will complete the testimony even though you gentlemen have to leave. I hope you will stay as long as you can. Proceed, Mr. Emerson. College housing STATEMENT OF E. S. EMERSON, GENERAL PARTNER, COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY FINANCE ASSOCIATES, SAN ANTONIO, TEX. Mr. EMERSON. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I am E. S. Emerson, of San Antonio, Tex. I have been engaged in the investment banking business since 1928, and have been active in college financing since 1938. I am at present a general partner of College and University Finance Associates, which is engaged as a principal business in college and university long-term financing. Senator MONRONEY. Before you go further, can you tell us a little bit more about your organization, the College and University Finance Associates? How many members do you have? Mr. EMERSON. Two partners. It is a private enterprise. It is a small, personal business and a private enterprise. Senator MONRONEY. It is a private business? Mr. EMERSON. Yes, sir. Senator MONRONEY. No college presidents or people like that? Senator MONRONEY. Strictly your own business? When was it organized, Mr. Emerson? 62736-55-16 |