DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF THE FLORIDA CANAL 433

 Mr. ROBINSON. Mr. President, clearly, as a matter of law, there is no express
authorization of the projects in the amendment. Such a provision would be
inconsistent with the purpose of the amendment. As to how any Senator
would regard the action of Congress in authorizing an allotment for these
projects to be expended during the next fiscal year, the Senator from New
York is as able to reach a conclusion as am I. I agree with him that there
is no legal obligation on the Congress to make additional appropriations.
 Mr. HAu obtained the floor.
 Mr. VANDENBEBe. Mr. President, will the Senator yield?
 Mr. COPELAND. Mr. President, may I complete my colloquy with the Senator
from Arkansas?
 The VIcz PRESIDENT. Does the Senator from Maine yield to the Senator
from New York? He desires to further inquire of the Senator from Arkansas.
 Mr. HAz.L Certainly.
 Mr. COPMLAND. Mr. President, it is our practice in connection with river and
 harbor projects and water-control projects, after due consideration by the appro-
 priate committees of the Congress, to make a definite authorization for the
 completion of a project. I want it distinctly understood that the testimony
 brought out before the Committee on Commerce-and, as I understand the
 Senator from Arkansas today, he confirms this statement-if the Congress
 should take favorable action and vote $10,000,000 and $9,000,000, respectively,
 for these projects, such action would not bind in any sense the present Congress
 or any future Congress in the sense in which a Congress may be bound by
 the ordinary appropriation for a river and harbor or water control project.
 Mr. VANDENBEBG. Mr. President, will the Senator yield?
 Mr. CoPzLAND. I yield.
 The VICz PmEsIDE~T. The Senator from Maine has the floor. After the Chair
 recognized the Senator from Maine the Senator from New York said he de-
 sired further to interrogate the Senator from Arkansas. The Senator from
 Maine has the floor. Does the Senator yield; and if so to whom?
 Mr. HALE. I will yield if it will not take any considerable time.
 Mr. VANDENBEBO. I thank the Senator. I am going to permit the Senator to
 proceed Immediately, if he will just permit me a moment.
 I do not want the statement just made by the Senator from New York to
 stand, even for one moment, without my distinct and complete dissent. I think
 it would be perfectly absurd to take any action which would authorize another
 year's work upon these projects unless the Congress is prepared to see them
 through to the finish. Therefore, this decision is a conclusive decision, and no
 amount of camouflage and no amount of weasel-worded arguments can make
 it anything else.
 Mr. HALr Mr. President, in view of the fact that there is no possible con-
 nection of any kind between the two projects included in the amendment of the
 Senator from Arkansas [Mr. Robinson], I am about to ask that the amendment
 be divided, and before doing so I wish to address the Senate briefly, giving my
 reasons for asking for a division.
 The situation in regard to the Passamaquoddy project is as follows:
 Under the powers given him in the $4,880,000,000 relief bill, which became a
 law in 1935, the President started and has already spent on the Passamaquoddy
 project in the neighborhood of $6,000,000. Extensive surveys have been made,
 lands and options have been acquired, buildings for the employees have been
 built, and improvements in the grounds connected with the buildings have been
 made. An actual start has been made on the construction of one of the main
 dams, and two of the smaller dams have already been constructed. The peak
 of employment was some 5,000 employees, largely taken from the relief rolls.
 When the War Department appropriation bill came before the Congress last
 March, along with it came a Bureau of the Budget recommendation for an
 appropriation of $29,000,000 for the Passamaquoddy and four other projects,
 including the Florida ship canal project. The House refused to include the
 appropriation because, as its Committee on Appropriations stated, these projects
 had never been authorized by the Congress. The appropriation for Passama-
 quoddy, as recommended by the Budget Bureau, was $9,000,000.
 When the bill came before the Senate, the friends of Passamaquoddy, on the
 ground that the President had the authority to start the project, that he had
 started it, and had in his hands the necessary funds for carrying it on and,
 therefore, needed no further legislation for carrying it on, asked the Committee
 on Appropriations to leave out the $9,000,000 for Passamaquoddy, should the
 committee decide to adopt the Budget Bureau's recommendations.