Contracts for supplies or services in any of the departments of the Government, except for personal services, or when the public exigency requires said supplies or said services immediately, must be made after advertisement for proposals in accordance with section 3709, Revised Statutes. The Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb is in the Department of the Interior, so as to make the provisions of section 3709, Revised Statutes, applicable to it in making purchases and contracts for supplies or services. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of the 12th ultimo, in which you request that this Department furnish you with an opinion as to whether the Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb is subject to the provisions of section 3709, Revised Statutes, as amended by the acts of April 21 and January 27, 1894, requiring that all purchases and contracts for supplies in any of the departments of the Government shall be made by advertising a sufficient time previously for proposals respecting the same. Section 3709, Revised Statutes, reads: "All purchases and contracts for supplies or services, in any of the departments of the Government, except for personal services, shall be made by advertising a sufficient time. previously for proposals respecting the same, when the public exigencies do not require the immediate delivery of the articles, or performance of the service. When immediate delivery or performance is required by the public exigency, the articles or service required may be procured by 7843-VOL 22, PT 1—1 1 open purchase or contract, at the places and in the manner in which such articles are usually bought and sold, or such services engaged, between individuals." The provisions of this section require advertisements for proposals in the case of all purchases and contracts for supplies or services in any of the departments of the Government, except for personal services, and except when the public exigencies require the immediate delivery of the articles or performance of the service. The amendatory acts do not modify this requirement, but simply provide a mode for carrying it into effect. The question to be determined is whether supplies or services furnished this institution are in the Department of the Interior within the policy and meaning of this requirement, or to put it another way, whether this institution is in the Department of the Interior, in the sense that its expenditures of public money are under the supervision of the head of that Department, and subject to the regulations and restrictions thrown by law around disbursements in departments of the Government. The Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb was incorporated by the act of Congress of February 16, 1857 (11 Stat., 161). Section 2 of this act provided: "That the institution shall be managed as provided for in its present constitution, and such additional regulations as may from time to time be found necessary." Section 4 authorized the Secretary of the Interior to admit indigent pupils into the institution and pay for their maintenance and tuition out of the Treasury of the United States. The sixth section imposed on the president and directors of the institution the duty of reporting to the Secretary of the Interior, annually, the condition of the institution, number of pupils received and discharged, number remaining, branches of knowledge taught, and "also a statement showing the receipts of the institution and from what sources, and its disbursements and for what objects." The act of May 29, 1858 (11 Stat., 293), made an appropriation for payment of salaries and incidental expenses, and provided that the deaf and dumb and the blind children of all persons in the military and naval service of the United States should be entitled to instruction in the institution. All receipts and disbursements under this act were required to be reported to the Secretary of the Interior. The act of June 13, 1860 (12 Stat., 30), provided for the dissolution of the Washington Manual Labor School, and the transfer of its effects to the Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb. The act of February 23, 1865 (13 Stat., 436), changed the name of the institution and did away with the provision in the original act for the instruction of the blind. The act of July 27, 1868 (15 Stat., 232), making certain appropriations for the institution, provided for the appointment of three additional directors, one named by the President of the Senate and two by the Speaker of the House, and provided that no part of the real estate of the institution should be sold or conveyed, except under the authority of a special act of Congress. The concluding section of this act required the superintendent of the institution to report to Congress a full statement of all the expenditures made by virtue of any appropriation by Congress. All accounts for appropriations for charitable institutions in the District of Columbia were required to be audited by the First Auditor of the Treasury. The act ended with this provision: "But nothing herein contained shall take from the Secretary of the Interior the jurisdiction he now has over the subject of charities and charitable institutions in the District of Columbia." These various provisions, as revised and codified, form Chapter V of Title LIX, Revised Statutes, sections 48594869. The act of March 3, 1883 (22 Stat., 625), after making appropriations for the institution, provides: "Hereafter the report of said institution shall include an itemized statement of all employees, the salaries or wages respectively, each of them, and also of all other expenses of said institution." The act of August 30, 1890 (26 Stat., 371, 392), after making appropriations for the institution, provides for the admission of deaf mutes from the States and Territories, with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior. The act of March 3, 1891 (26 Stat., 1062), making appropriations for the District of Columbia, contains the following: "For expenses attending the instruction of deaf and dumb persons admitted to the Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb from the District of Columbia, under section 4864 of the Revised Statutes, $10,500, or so much thereof as may be necessary; and all disbursements for this object, beginning with the current fiscal year, shall be accounted for through the Department of the Interior." Similar provisions with respect to the disbursement of appropriations for District pupils appear in the acts of July 14, 1892 (27 Stat., 164); March 3, 1893 (27 Stat., 551); August 7, 1894 (28 Stat., 243, 259); March 2, 1895 (28 Stat., 745, 761); and June 11, 1896 (29 Stat., 665, 681). Beginning with the act of March 3, 1871 (16 Stat., 495, 500), appropriations for the construction of the institution and its current expenses have been included in the general appropriation bills, under the heading "Department of the Interior." (See act of June 11, 1896, 29 Stat., 413, 432, 437: also act of April 23, 1897, Statutes of 1897, 1, 31, 36.) The estimates submitted by the Secretary of the Treasury put construction, repairs, and current expenses under the head "Miscellaneous-Interior Department," while the appropriation to pay for District pupils is put under the head of "Miscellaneous-District of Columbia," with the special provision that all disbursements for this object shall be accounted for through the Department of the Interior. The policy of charging the appropriations for the institution to the Interior Department has been adopted from the first. * * The so-called Dockery Act of July 31, 1895, section 7 (28 Stat., 206), provides that the Auditor of the Treasury for the Interior Department "shall receive and examine all accounts relating to army and navy pensions, etc., and to all other business within the jurisdiction of the Department of the Interior." * * * In an opinion under date October 16, 1894, the Comptroller of the Treasury said (First Decisions Comptroller, p. 20): "By reference to the sections of the Revised Statutes 4859 to 4869, relating to the Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, and particularly to the provisions of section 4868, which requires the president and directors of said institution to report to the Secretary of the Interior 'a statement showing the receipts of the institution and from what sources, and its disbursements and for what objects,' taken in connection with the policy of Congress in appropriating sums for said institution as under the Department of the Interior, it is evident that the accounts of said institution are accounts within the jurisdiction of the Department of the Interior, and therefore under the Auditor for the Interior Department.' In the light of the foregoing facts, namely, that this institution was organized by act of Congress, and has ever since been regulated and controlled through acts of Congress; that the Government has, substantially, furnished the money to build and run it, and from the start has placed it under the supervision of the Secretary of the Interior; that the appropriations for construction and current expenses have been and are being made under the head of "The Interior Department," and even in the case of the District appropriations, to pay for the tuition of District pupils, special provision has been made that they should be accounted for "through the Department of the Interior;" that the institution has been required, right along, to make detailed reports of its transactions and more particularly its receipts and disbursements to the Secretary of the Interior; and, finally, that the Comptroller of the Treasury, whose decision under the Dockery law is final, has held that the accounts of the institution are within the jurisdiction of the Interior Department, and will not be allowed until passed upon and approved by the Secretary of the Interior, I am constrained to hold that the institution is in the Department of the Interior, so as to make the provisions of section 3709 applicable to it in making purchases and contracts for supplies or services. The Secretary of the Interior is charged by law with the disbursement of the annual appropriations for this institution. Without his approval no public money can be obtained by the officers of the institution. This authority entails a corresponding responsibility. The Secretary, being required to approve, should see that the money appropriated |