Relation of the Federal Government to Research 



111 



may be spent (50 Stat. 261, 285) ; and the same act 

 makes available to the Bureau of Foreign and 

 Domestic Commerce funds "to collect and compile in- 

 formation regai'ding the disposition and handling of 

 raw materials and manufactures within the TInited 

 States; and to investigate the conditions of production 

 and marketing of foreign raw materials essential for 

 American industries." The Bureau of the Census may 

 spend not more than $2,500 "for the employment by 

 contract of personal services for the preparation of 

 monographs on census subjects"; the Coast and Geo- 

 detic Survey is authorized to employ a physicist "to 

 develop survey methods based on transmission of 

 sound through sea water"; and the original purpose 

 of the Bureau of Fisheries is reaffirmed with an ap- 

 propriation for "inquiry into the cause of the decrease 

 of food fishes in the waters of the United States." 



The Weather Bureau appropriation (50 Stat. 395, 

 402) is to cover "necessary expenses incident to col- 

 lecting and disseminating meteorological, climatolog- 

 ical, and marine information, and for investigations in 

 meteorology, climatology, seismology, evaporation, and 

 aerology * * *"; while the Eural Electrification 

 Administration receives funds for "expenses of studies, 

 investigations, publications, and reports necessary to 

 carry out the provisions of the Rural Electrification 

 Act of 1936" (50 Stat. 329). The Department of Agri- 

 culture appropriation (50 Stat. 396, 431) permits, as 

 have similar acts for the past decade, an interchange 

 of funds between bureaus up to 10 percent of their ap- 

 propriations, providing that no appropriation shall 

 thus be increased by more than 10 percent and that a 

 statement as to such transfers be included in the next 

 budget. 



Limitations. — The most definite limitation to be 

 found in appropriation acts is a limited appropriation. 

 Few j^rovisions can so completely hamstring a research 

 program as provision of inadequate funds, but evi- 

 dence of inadequate provisions in this regard must bo 

 sought in the hearings rather than in the acts them- 

 selves. In the Department of Commerce appropriation 

 for 1938 (50 Stat. 288), for example, there is no indi- 

 cation that the $50,000 provided for preliminary work 

 on the 1940 census is so small a fraction of the required 

 simi that the preparatory activities of the Census 

 Bureau will be seriously curtailed. {See Problems 

 of the Bureau of the Census in their Relation to Social 

 Science, p. 223, below.) 



Another type of restriction on research activities is 

 exemplified by a clause in the Department of Agricul- 

 ture appropriation for 1938 (50 Stat. 395, 396) which 

 provides that "no part of the funds appi'opriated by 

 tliis act shall be used for laboratory investigations 



to determine the possibly harmful effects on human 

 beings of spray insecticides on fruit and vegetables." 

 The purpose of the latter, however, is merely to avoid 

 duplication, since an item carrying on the investiga- 

 tions referred to is included in the Public Health 

 Service appropriation for the same year. 



Other limiting clauses in appropriation acts take 

 tlie general form of a provision that not more than 

 a specified sum, or a specified percentage of the total 

 appropriation, is to be spent for a given purpose. The 

 items most frequently subject to an expenditure limita- 

 tion of this type are personal services in the District 

 of Columbia, vehicles, travel, buildings, attendance at 

 meetings, printing and binding, and books and 

 periodicals. 



Neio functions. — Since the passage of the Budget 

 and Accounting Act of 1921, and the subsequent revi- 

 sion of House and Senate rules to provide that the 

 committees on appropriations shall not originate gen- 

 eral laws, the inclusion of new functions in appropria- 

 tion acts has become less common than it was in 

 earlier years. It is by no means unknown, however, 

 though it is not always easy to determine, short of 

 detailed examination of successive acts and hearings, 

 whether appropriation items are for new functions 

 or merely for continuing older activities. Sometimes 

 the phrase "for continuing investigations of * * *" 

 is used, but its absence does not necessarily indicate 

 a new field of effort. 



In some cases, too, the appropriation titles remain 

 substantially the same from year to year but are gen- 

 eral enough to permit of some variety in the work 

 done under them. The appropriation items for the 

 Geological Survey and for the Bureau of Plant Indus- 

 try are of this type, and represent scientific divisions 

 of the agency rather than specific research projects. 



Actually there is probably less authorization of new 

 activities in appropriation acts than would be desir- 

 able, in view of the frequently changing emphasis 

 demanded of a thoroughgoing research program. 



Trends in Appropriation Acts 



Although appropriation procedure has been much 

 improved under the budget system, the texts of appro- 

 priation acts have not shown any particularly significant 

 alteration. Taking the early 1920's as the transition 

 period between the system which was discarded in 1921 

 and that which has grown up under the Budget and 

 Accounting Act, the most general change is in respect 

 to the item for personnel which is now lumped instead 

 pf itemized by salary grades. As a whole the appro- 

 priation acts for the 10 years following 1921 show 



