272 DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF THE FLORIDA CANAL General MAMunAM. That is correct. You mean as to authorization. Senator Furcanm Yes. General MAanrM. That is correct, sir. Senator Fucnaamm And, is it not true that there have been appropriations made for projects that have not been passed upon by the engineers? General MAsKHAM. I think so. Senator FLTrHa Yes; you see, it is entirely a question for Congress to decide whether they will consider this a Federal project adopted by the Presi- dent under the authorization contained in the Work Relief Act of 1935. Senator COPIAND. Senator Fletcher, as chairman of this subcommittee, I am forced to act under the interpretation the chairman, Senator Glass, has made, that we must not include in the bill items which have not been authorized. I am quite surprised to hear about this 4tem in the Interior Department bill. Was not that carried up to the Congress as perhaps a correction? Senator CART. What we did is, we put these appropriations in the bill and then on the floor; Senator Hayden offered an amendment to the bill authorizing them, after they were agreed upon In the committee. Senator FtzrcHEi. Authorizing the projects. Senator CAsr. We included them and the committee offered them on the floor. Senator CoPErAND. I want to be clear about this, because of my own position as chairman of the committee for the time being. Is this involved? Did the committee, did the Appropriations Committee authorize Senator Hayden to present upon the floor the recommendations of the committee for the inclusion of this item you have just referred to? Senator Carer. The subcommittee did. I was not present when the full com- mittee acted on the bill, but I imagine they agreed to it, because it was offered. Senator McAdoo, you are a member of the committee. Do you remember? Senator CoPAfmn. Let me ask Mr. Rea, What is your memory about this amendment? The CuImx. Senator Hayden asked the permission of the committee to pre- sent a piece of legislation to the Interior Department bill in the Senate. The Senate unanimously agreed to his request. Two-thirds majority would have been necessary in case this had been a divided opinion. Senator COP AND. We must go and vote, Senator. (After answering the call of the Senate for a vote, the committee reassembled and the following proceedings were had:) Senator CoPHAND. We will resume. The point involved here in connection with these five projects is whether if they were authorized in this committee, and sent to the floor, they would be violative of the rule which I, as chairman, am required to enforce, so far as I can. Of course, I am only 1 out of 96. STATEIMET OF RON. ARTHUR H. VANIENBERG, A SENATOR FIRO THE STATE OF MICHIGAN Senator VAxmnmsBEa I would like to be heard on that subject, if I may. Senator COPlaND. Yes, Senator. Senator VAonmss~ao. Because of my fundamental interest in this whole prop- osition, I have a feeling that the integrity of the rivers and harbors projects for many, many years has been protected chiefly by this necessity for independ- ent authorization through enabling acts of Congress which in turn never have been passed without a conclusive and final recommendation of the Board of Rivers and Harbors Engineers. Now, entirely aside from the merits and demerits of the particular items that are here involved-that is another argument-it seems to me that it is per- fectly fatal to depart from this fundamental rule which is the only protection that the Treasury has against the old-fashioned log-rolling method of creating rivers and harbors appropriations, and I think if General Markham felt free to say so, he would be the last man in the world who would approve any lapse in the standard practice which required direct and specific enaction of Congress in respect to rivers and harbors projects. Now, what Senator Fletcher says about these projects is literally correct-I have no challenge to it whatever-namely, that so far as the inception of the project was concerned, it occurred absolutely with warrant of law, that warrant being the blanket authority granted to the President under the Emergency Relief Act of 1985.