The Federal Public Works Program

Report Outline
Waterways and Flood Control Works
Public Roads and Public Buildings
The Federal Public Works Organization

Extension and revision of the federal program of public works is one of the major undertakings to which the Hoover administration has pledged itself. Statements emphasising the importance of the federal program were made repeatedly by Mr. Hoover during the 1928 campaign, and have been reiterated since the stock market crash of October, 1929, in connection with the President's belief that public construction can be used as one means of warding off business depression and unemployment. Public assurances that the federal government would “exert itself to the utmost” to expedite its construction program, with a view to “strengthening the present economic situation,” were given by the President in November. In his annual message to Congress, December 3, he said the government had already “instituted measures of prudent expansion in such work that should be helpful.”

Public works expenditures by the federal government during the fiscal year 1929 totalled $232,000,000. The bulk of these funds went for river and harbor improvements, public buildings, and highway construction in coöperation with the states. Increased appropriations for waterways and for public buildings were definitely recommended in the President's recent message, and, without making a definite committment, he expressed no opposition to an enlargement of federal highway aid. Details of these proposals, and of the increases carried in the budget submitted by the President and now awaiting the action of Congress, will be set forth in the body of this report. Excluding possible expenditures for the construction of Boulder dam and the St. Lawrence waterway, probable increases in annual public works expenditures appear to range from $25,000,000 to $75,000,000. Items carried in the pending budget will not become available, however, until after June 30, 1930. Any substantial increase in the amounts already authorized for the current fiscal year,-which total about $245,000,000, -will have to be carried in deficiency appropriation bills, the first of which will be reported to the House when Congress reconvenes after the Christmas recess.

President's Call for a “Long-Visioned” Program

The fullest presentation of President Hoover's views concerning the federal government's program of public works was given in his address accepting the Republican nomination for the presidency. Pointing out that the war had forced a curtailment of many needad works, he urged that future development of the nation's water resources be based upon a larger-visioned plan, systematically coördinating transportation, irrigation, reclamation, water supply, hydroelectric power, find flood control. Building and road construction, Mr. Hoover said, should similarly be based upon plans looking toward the needs of a long period of time.