come all the way up to the Office of the Secretary of Defense to be approved. So this particular account, although a small one, is very important, and enables the Department of Defense to take care of things which may arise and which we cannot foresee. Senator STENNIS. What sum are you talking about now? Senator STENNIS. You want $2 million for planning? Mr. POOLE. That is right, sir. Senator STENNIS. You say you had some last year for planning? How much? Mr. POOLE. $2 million. Senator STENNIS. Did you use it? Mr. POOLE. Yes. We have I think about $38,000 that we have not used yet. Senator STENNIS. You could not get your buildings in the budget through, is that right? RESTORATION REQUEST Mr. POOLE. The budget included estimates for construction, as well as planning. The House deleted the $2 million for planning and we would like to ask that this committee consider its restoration. Senator STENNIS. I don't see a sheet here for the $1 million. the House allow this $2 million and one? Mr. POOLE. The House allowed neither one of the two. Thank you for your courtesy. Did Senator STENNIS. Thank you. We appreciate your being over here. (Whereupon, at 8:20 p.m., Tuesday, November 26, 1963, the committee recessed subject to the call of the Chair.) MILITARY CONSTRUCTION APPROPRIATIONS FOR 1964 WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1963 U.S. SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS, Washington, D.C. The subcommittee met at 11:30 a.m., pursuant to executive session, in room 1114, New Senate Office Building, Senator John Stennis, presiding. Present: Senator Stennis. STATEMENT OF HON. WALTER E. ROGERS, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF TEXAS HOSPITAL FACILITIES AT AMARILLO AIR FORCE BASE Senator STENNIS. On the record. Congressman Rogers, we are delighted to have you here. We know of your fine interest in the military program and your concern about the items in the area where you have familiar knowledge and special responsibility in connection therewith. You may proceed now. We shall be glad to hear you on any matter you are interested in. Mr. ROGERS. Mr. Chairman, my name is Walter E. Rogers and I am a Member of Congress from the 18th Congressional District of Texas, known as the Panhandle and in which is located the Amarillo Air Force Base. The hospital facilities at the Amarillo Air Force Base have been made up of World War II buildings that have been patched together and nailed together and kept alive by the greatest human effort for some time. We had planned for a number of years, or for the last several years, for a new hospital facility to be built there and the new hospital facility was included in the request of the Air Force for that base. It is an air training base. HOUSE ACTION Now the committee in the House of Representatives cut out the appropriation for $3,400,000 for this hospital facility along with some other hospital facilities that had been included in the Air Force request. Now the difficulty about this situation arose, I think, out of misunderstanding. The misunderstanding is the fact that in the new 531 proposed hospital obstetrical facilities were not included. They are included in the present operation at the air base although they are not good and something has to be done to change it. I talked to the subcommittee and I think there is a misunderstanding about this situation in this respect. OBSTETRICAL FACILITIES LEFT OUT The obstetrical facilities were left out because the facilities in Amarillo proper are sufficient to meet all the needs of the Air Force personnel. It was the decision of the Department of Defense and the Bureau of the Budget that these obstetrical facilities not be included in this base. Now I think with that understanding, new understanding, by the Members of the House, that there will be no difficulty about them if the Senate will place this amount in so that this hospital facility can be completed. PEOPLE ON BASE Now this base has a complement of some 14,000 people, and the facts and figures on it, I am sure, have been given to this subcommittee by the Air Force and I won't really repeat them but I would want to point out that the area of Amarillo proper, the civilian area, has worked in close conjunction with the military. The relationships have always been very good. Now Amarillo, as a center of population in an area larger than the State of Indiana, serves the needs of a great number of people in hospital facilities. LOCAL ACTIVITY Now they are presently building and have recently voted a bond issue for $2 million to bring about the building of additional hospital facilities there and the Baptist Church is also building a hospital facility in what we hope to be a hospital complex. All of this planning was done in conjunction with and in anticipation of the Air Force facility being made a part of this whole program. NEED FOR HOSPITAL Of course it will be confined to military personnel but the programing and planning was done in anticipation of this hospital at the base which has been so badly needed. I sincerely hope that this subcommittee can include in the appropriations the $3,400,000 necessary to meet this tragic need. I have a number of pictures here that I would like to leave with the subcommittee showing the rundown condition and the bad situation there at the hospital as this presently is situated. I have been told that unless a new hospital is built that it will cost somewhere in the vicinity of $1,600,000 just to keep this hospital operating or up to its present configuration for the next 3 years which will be money lost because at the end of that 3-year period you will have nothing more than you had in the beginning of the situation that you were faced with. I would sincerely hope that the subcommittee could include this. I think it would be a great service to the Air Force and to the country because I think it is so badly needed. LANGUAGE IN HOUSE REPORT Senator STENNIS. Congressman, I was reading here, what the committee said in full, the House committee. They say: existing medical facilities at this base provide obstretrical care for the dependents of military personnel. Do you contest that now? Mr. ROGERS. The present facilities, Senator, are set up to take care of the obstetrical patients. But with the nature of the buildings and the way it is arranged it is not safe. Senator STENNIS. I thought that was what you said? Mr. ROGERS. So far as we are concerned and so far as the Air Force is concerned, proper, I understand they very much would like to have obstetrical facilities in that place but the Bureau of the Budget and the Department of Defense overruled this because they felt it was an additional cost perhaps that could not be justified. Now I have a letter here from the chairman of the hospital committee and the mayor of the city of Amarillo, Mr. F. V. Wallace: Northwest Texas Hospital and St. Anthony's Hospital have combined capacity in obstetrical department of 65 patients. Combined daily census this calendar year range from a low of 31 to a high of 41 patients. Low occupancy reflects comparable recent obstetrical department's experience in similar hospitals elsewhere. Understand Amarillo Air Force Base obstetrical department, day census low of 5 and high of 12. This could easily be cared for in two local hospitals. As I pointed out that shows that the facilities are there to take care of these people but if the Air Force or if the Department of Defense and the Bureau of the Budget wants to add the obstetrical at the Air Force base we would welcome that. PROJECT FOSTPONED BY HOUSE Senator STENNIS. It seems your committee over in the House just put this off. They did not decline it or condemn it or reject it, they just postponed it. Mr. ROGERS. That is right. Senator STENNIS. For a further surve and study. fault with that now specifically? Just pinpoint it. What is the Mr. ROGERS. The fault is that this hospital facility is sorely needed at the present time, Senator, and if it is carried on under the plan which has been worked out, it will fit right into the whole program for that whole general area. Now I think the members of the subcommittee in the House were under the impression that no survey had been made at all; however, since then I have advised all of them that the survey actually that they have in mind, or a large part of it, has already been made by the Bureau of the Budget who sent a man down there and he went over this entire program in the first instance. Senator STENNIS. Have they communicated with us about this? Mr. REXROAD. Yes, sir. COMMITTEE TO REVIEW MATTER Senator STENNIS. It is so much better to get it all together here. Your statement is helpful. We heard the Air Force on it a day or two ago. We have had some communication from your committee. I think you have been quite helpful to us. We will certainly review the entire matter. Mr. ROGERS. Thank you, Senator. Senator STENNIS. I don't know what the committee will conclude of course but I hope that we can carry out your wishes. Mr. ROGERS. We will hope for the best. Thank you very much. I am Senator STENNIS. Thank you very much for coming over. sorry we had to rush you but this special session is coming up. Mr. ROGERS. I understand. Senator STENNIS. Mr. Clerk, is there anything else for the bill? CONCLUSION OF HEARINGS Mr. REXROAD. This completes all the witnesses and all of the agencies. (Whereupon, at 11:45 a.m., Wednesday, November 27, 1963, the subcommittee adjourned subject to call.) (CLERK'S NOTE: The following communications were received subsequent to the close of the hearings:) Hon. JOHN STENNIS, THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE, Chairman, Subcommittee on Military Construction, U.S. Senate DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: The Department of Defense has reviewed H.R. 9139 as passed by the House on November 18, 1963, and its accompanying report. The bill as passed by the House will provide new obligational authority for military construction of $917,793,000 as compared with the President's budget request of $1,232 million, a decrease of $314,207,000, and new obligational authority for the family housing account of $645,171,000 as compared with the President's budget request of $734,400,000, or a reduction of $89,229,000. It is noted that the decreases are due to the reductions of the Department of Defense authorizing legislation request and to changes in the program made by the Appropriations Committee which are indicated in the Committee Report No. 901. All the adjustments have been reviewed carefully and the committee report has been taken into consideration. The Department of Defense is requesting the restoration of $110,807,000 in the military construction appropriations accounts and $40,141,000 in the family housing account. The details of the items which we are requesting to be restored and their estimates will be presented to your committee in full detail by the appropriate Department of Defense components. There are, however, certain adjustments which I want to call to your attention and ask your committee's consideration. The House has made reductions in the three principal military construction accounts which are not attributable to any adjustments to the program. It is our considered judgment that such reductions will result in actual dropouts of line items from the program so that the remaining items can be fully funded. We appreciate that through the years there have been minor savings within the estimates approved and appropriated by the Congress, but such savings have been programed with congressional approval to construct regular or emergency projects as authorized by the Congress. We will continue our efforts to construct facilities below the approved estimates. However, we do not have any basis to forecast at this time specific savings within our current estimates for projects which will go under construc tion in the future. We are, therefore, earnestly requesting that these cuts be restored. I would also like to bring to your attention the deletion by the House of the estimates requested for planning and minor construction in the appropriation "Military construction, Defense agencies." This request does not differ in any way from the normal request for military construction in the other accounts. |