494 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



7. A separate (U\ision of the engineering force in the Washington office was organized 

 to handle the Federal-aid vouchers submitted. The number some months rises as 

 high as 400, and each one of them involves the usual monthly estimate of construction, 

 often very long and requiring the most careful checking and scrutiny. Large possi- 

 sibilities of delay existed in doing this work, and every effort has been made to expe- 

 dite it. 



8. By an understanding with the States, claims for Federal aid are not submitted 

 for amounts less than SI ,000. By this arrangement the number of vouchers has been 

 reduced about 30 per cent below what they otherwise would be and the work of handling 

 vouchers proportionately expedited. 



9. Owing to the large number of incorrect claims for very small amounts, numerical 

 errors in the pro rata and other purely technical details in vouchers which would 

 ordinarily necessitate the return of the voucher to the State for correction, the practice 

 has been adopted of using the 5 per cent retent uniformly made against the States 

 to cover as many of these defects as possible. 



FEDERAL-AID PROGRESS. 



In spite of the untoward economic conditions, and attributable in 

 no small degree to the improvements in methods of administration 

 effected during the year, the amount of Federal-aid business handled, 

 as represented by numbers of projects, was approximately 25 per 

 cent greater during the single year than all previous work done under 

 the act since 1916. An average of 139 new projects were received 

 and approved monthly. 



The amount of the appropriations made by the Congress which 

 became available at the beginning of the fiscal year was §;95,000,000, 

 S20,000,000 of which was derived from the act of July 11, 1916, and 

 $75,000,000 from the Post Ofhce appropriation act of February 28, 

 1919 (H. R. 13308). From this there v\^as deducted the 3 per'' cent 

 allowed by law for administrative purposes, and the remainder, or 

 $92, 1 50,000, was apportioned among the several States. This amount 

 was in addition to the $77,600,000 previously apportioned for the 

 fiscal years 1917 to 1919, inclusive, so that the total amount 

 which has been apportioned up to and including this fiscal vear 

 is $169,750,000. 



During the year a total of 1,670 project statements submitted by 

 the States were approved by the bureau, as compared with 1,316 

 projects approved from 1916 up to the beginning of the year. The 

 projects approved involved 16,673 miles of road as compared with 

 the 12,720 miles which had been previously approved; and the Fed- 

 eral aid requested on these roads amounted to $109,830,366, which 

 was more than twice as great as the total amount of -554,714,219 

 requested during the three years 1917, 1918, and 1919. 



Agreements with State highway departments were executed during 

 the fiscal year to cover 1,286 projects, almost three times the largest 

 number executed previously in any one fiscal year, and nearly twice 

 the total number executed prior to the beginning of the year. The 

 estimated cost of the projects covered by these agreements amounted 

 to $197,571,626, of which amount there was set aside in the Treasury 

 $85,906,556 as Federal aid. At the close of the fiscal year 1919 there 

 had been executed 677 of such agreements, involving an estimated 

 cost of $56,418,763 and an allowance of Federal aid amounting to 

 $23,931,618. Thus, at the close of the fiscal year 1920 a total of 

 1,963 had been executed to cover projects involving 15,178 miles, at 

 a total estimated cost of $253,990,389, including $109,838,174 of 

 Federal aid. Of the funds apportioned, therefore, there remained 

 at the end of the fiscal year an unallotted balance of $59,911,826. 



