THE PRESIDENT. I haven't any very alarming questions today. I have one as to the tax reduction, on which I have said before I could not make answer until we knew more about the budget situation.
BUDGET ALLOCATIONS FOR INDEPENDENT ESTABLISHMENTS
I think it may interest you to have the final budget allocations for the independent establishments. That is as far as the budget has progressed for 1931. I am having the table mimeographed, so you will have it immediately after the conference.
The independent establishments embrace both the Farm Board and the Budget Bureau. The total amount available for the current fiscal year for all of the establishments is $808,689,000 as you will see by this statement, and in that is $151,500,000 for the Farm Board. The budget allocations for the next fiscal year, that is 1931, are $656,571,000, but there is no provision for the Farm Board there, as the Farm Board has not yet been able to make an estimate. So the comparisons are a little confused. The actual expenditures for the last fiscal year on the independent establishments were $663,300,000. During the current year it would be about $650 million if the Farm Board item were taken out, and the estimate for the next year is $656 million, as I have stated, which shows about a $6 million increase which lies almost entirely in the Veterans Bureau. But you will have the table in a minute.
Q. Mr. President, is the District of Columbia included in that ?
THE PRESIDENT. I don't think so. No, the District budget is not in it. This is the independent establishments.
PUBLIC LAND COMMISSION APPOINTMENTS
I have one or two other very minor questions. The Public Land Commission is not yet appointed. We have the suggestions in from the Governors and Senators, and that is being gone into.
SAN FRANCISCO BRIDGE COMMISSION
On the question of the Bridge Commission in San Francisco, that Commission is to meet on the 6th of October in San Francisco.
ENTERTAINMENT OF PRIME MINISTER MACDONALD
I have another question as to what entertainment is to be given to Mr. MacDonald at the White House. From the purely personal [p.306] point of view, there will be a dinner to ladies and gentlemen to the utmost capacity of the White House, on Monday night--probably 90 people.
That is all I have.
NEWS CONFERENCE SESSIONS
I wonder sometimes whether when we have a thin day it is worth your while to come--whether we could not hand your questions over to Mr. Akerson, or whether you prefer to come. If you would rather have the open session I am entirely agreeable, but I always feel that I am not assisting you as much as I should like when we have a thin day like this.
Q. I think, Mr. President, we prefer the open session.
Note: President Hoover's fifty-third news conference was held in the White House at 4 p.m. on Friday, September 27, 1929.
On the same day, the White House issued a comparative statement of appropriations for the Executive Office and independent establishments, as follows:
COMPARATIVE STATEMENT OF APPROPRIATIONS FOR 1930 AND ESTIMATES FOR 1931 FOR THE EXECUTIVE OFFICE AND INDEPENDENT ESTABLISHMENTS
Total available Estimates for
for 1930 1931 recommended
by the Budget
Executive Office $611,944 $402,320
Alaska relief funds 15,000 15,000
American Battle Monuments Commission. 2,267,973 1,000,000
Arlington Memorial Bridge Commission 3,287,500 1,000,000
Board of Mediation 348,270 328,380
Board of Tax Appeals 725,863 690,000
Bureau of Efficiency 224,330 224,330
Civil Service Commission 1,398,712 1,362,952
Commission of Fine Arts 9,080 9,080
Employees' Compensation Commission 4,077,326 4,210,000
Federal Board for Vocational Education 8,799,520 8,420,400
Federal Farm Board 151,500,000
Federal Oil Conservation Board 19,000 22,220
COMPARATIVE STATEMENT OF APPROPRIATIONS FOR 1930 AND ESTIMATES FOR 1931 FOR THE EXECUTIVE OFFICE AND INDEPENDENT ESTABLISHMENTS-Continued
Total available Estimates for
for 1930 1931 recommended
by the budget
Federal Power Commission $179,500 $187,250
Federal Radio Commission 164,440 168,610
Federal Reserve Board 2,605,741 2,560,336
Federal Trade Commission 1,242,686 1,437,460
General Accounting Office 4,145,900 4,181,000
George Rogers Clark Sesquicentennial Commission 200,000
Housing Corporation 397,950 298,950
Interstate Commerce Commission 8,213,825 9,329,963
Mount Rushmore National Memorial Commission 100,000 60,000
National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics 1,508,000 1,321,000
Porto Rican Hurricane Relief Commission 2,000,000 1,000,000
Protecting Interests of the United States in Oil Leases 220,991
Public Buildings and Public Parks of the National Capital 2,975,799 3,591,640
Public Buildings Commission 57,000 100,000
Smithsonian Institution 1,107,573 1,189,683
United States Tariff Commission 825,000 825,000
United States Geographic Board 9,200 14,660
United States Shipping Board and Merchant
Fleet Corporation 11,494,000 6,396,000
United States Veterans' Bureau 597,957,000 606,225,000
Total, Executive Office and independent establishments 808,689,123 656,571,234
Herbert Hoover, The President's News Conference Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/207073