The present plan is for the Navy to provide certain personnel at Fort Worth and to send all of its mentally ill patients there. The per capita cost at Fort Worth is somewhat higher and there is no assurance that any better care will be given to the patient. Just what arrangement will be made for the care of Navy prisoners who become mentally ill is not clear. The changes proposed in the character of the population of St. Elizabeths Hospital would render it essentially a District institution and would deprive it of many of its characteristic features which have reacted to the benefit of the patients, of the community and of American psychiatry in general. The American Psychiatric Association is disturbed at the implications of the plan and has authorized representatives to appear in opposition. These representatives are Dr. John C. Whitehorn, professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins and Dr. Ross M. Chapman, superintendent of Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital in Towson, Md., and former president of the American Psychiatric Association. The CHAIRMAN. The committee will stand adjourned until 10 o'clock tomorrow. (Whereupon, at 12: 30 p. m., the committee adjourned until Friday, June 7, 1946, at 10 a. m.) REORGANIZATION PLAN FRIDAY, JUNE 7, 1946 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, IN THE EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS, Washington, D. C. The committee reconvened pursuant to adjournment at 10 a. m., the Honorable Carter Manasco, chairman, presiding. The CHAIRMAN. The committee will come to order. We have before us this morning, Mr. Thomas S. Holden, representing the Commerce and Industry Association of New York, who is appearing in opposition to Reorganization Plan No. 1. Mr. Holden, you may proceed. STATEMENT OF THOMAS HOLDEN, OF THE COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK Mr. HOLDEN. My name is Thomas S. Holden, president of the F. W. Dodge Corp., and I represent the Commerce and Industry Association of New York, which has a total membership of approximately 4,000, representing all segments of business, industry, and finance in the New York metropolitan area. I am a member of the board of directors of that organization and have served for the past 8 years as chairman of its special committee on urban rehabilitation, which committee has made original studies of housing problems and housing legislation, which originated legislation which has been enacted in the State of New York, also. The statement I will present has been approved by unanimous vote of the board of directors of the association at a meeting held on June 3. The President of the United States reported to Congress on Thursday, May 16, under Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 1946 the reorganization of the National Housing Agency as a permanent agency of government. Under the existing reorganization law this action of the President will have statutory force unless Congress votes positive disapproval before July 16. The National Housing Agency was created in February 1942 as an emergency war agency under which was consolidated the Federal Home Loan Bank Administration, the Federal Housing Administration, and the Federal Public Housing Authority. My statement to you today is directed to that portion of Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 1946 which would transform the National Housing Agency from a temporary wartime unit to a permanent agency. 88368-46-12 173 The present plan is for the Navy to provide certain personnel at Fort Worth and to send all of its mentally ill patients there. The per capita cost at Fort Worth is somewhat higher and there is no assurance that any better care will be given to the patient. Just what arrangement will be made for the care of Navy prisoners who become mentally ill is not clear. The changes proposed in the character of the population of St. Elizabeths Hospital would render it essentially a District institution and would deprive it of many of its characteristic features which have reacted to the benefit of the patients, of the community and of American psychiatry in general. The American Psychiatric Association is disturbed at the implications of the plan and has authorized representatives to appear in opposition. These representatives are Dr. John C. Whitehorn, professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins and Dr. Ross M. Chapman, superintendent of Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital in Towson, Md., and former president of the American Psychiatric Association. The CHAIRMAN. The committee will stand adjourned until 10 o'clock tomorrow. (Whereupon, at 12: 30 p. m., the committee adjourned until Friday, June 7, 1946, at 10 a. m.) REORGANIZATION PLAN FRIDAY, JUNE 7, 1946 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, IN THE EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS, Washington, D. C. The committee reconvened pursuant to adjournment at 10 a. m., the Honorable Carter Manasco, chairman, presiding. The CHAIRMAN. The committee will come to order. We have before us this morning, Mr. Thomas S. Holden, representing the Commerce and Industry Association of New York, who is appearing in opposition to Reorganization Plan No. 1. Mr. Holden, you may proceed. STATEMENT OF THOMAS HOLDEN, OF THE COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK Mr. HOLDEN. My name is Thomas S. Holden, president of the F. W. Dodge Corp., and I represent the Commerce and Industry Association of New York, which has a total membership of approximately 4,000, representing all segments of business, industry, and finance in the New York metropolitan area. I am a member of the board of directors of that organization and have served for the past 8 years as chairman of its special committee on urban rehabilitation, which committee has made original studies of housing problems and housing legislation, which originated legislation which has been enacted in the State of New York, also. The statement I will present has been approved by unanimous vote of the board of directors of the association at a meeting held on June 3. The President of the United States reported to Congress on Thursday, May 16, under Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 1946 the reorganization of the National Housing Agency as a permanent agency of government. Under the existing reorganization law this action of the President will have statutory force unless Congress votes positive disapproval before July 16. The National Housing Agency was created in February 1942 as an emergency war agency under which was consolidated the Federal Home Loan Bank Administration, the Federal Housing Administration, and the Federal Public Housing Authority. My statement to you today is directed to that portion of Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 1946 which would transform the National Housing Agency from a temporary wartime unit to a permanent agency. 88368-46-12 173 Practically all the reasons advanced for the immediate establishment of the National Housing Agency as a permanent agency by means of this reorganization plan are based on conditions which are, even by the proponents of the measure, considered to be temporary in nature. The President, in submitting the plan to Congress, stated in the accompanying message: * * * I do not need to stress again at this time the urgent necessity of taking all possible measures to alleviate the present critical housing shortage If the Government is to mobilize to fullest effectiveness our resources for dealing with the housing emergency, an indispensable step is the establishment of a housing agency on a permanent basis. * * * There is a seeming inconsistency in arguing for permanent consolidation of these agencies on the basis of a purely temporary emergency situation. The powers granted to the Housing Administrator by Executive order and by the Veterans' Emergency Housing Act are ample, and considered by many people more than ample, to deal with the present temporary housing emergency. When the House of Representatives first passed the Veterans' Emergency Housing Act of 1946 it set June 30, 1947, as the termination date, later extended to December 31, 1947, by the conference committee, thus recognizing the temporary character of the situation. In further justification of this permanent reorganization, the President's message states: *** It (National Housing Agency) is not infrequently looked upon as an organization which, now that peace has come, may be abolished in the relatively near future. This has made for uncertainties which have inevitably placed the National Housing Agency at a disadvantage. In order that it may proceed on its program with the fullest confidence that it has a position equivalent to that of any other permanent Government agency, its organization should be confirmed at the earliest possible date. To say the least, this is a highly rationalized argument. No specific example of the alleged "disadvantage" has been advanced. The fact of the matter is that all the components of the National Housing Agency which are essential to the execution of the emergency housing program are permanent units. These are the Federal Home Loan Bank Administration, the Federal Housing Administration, and the Federal Public Housing Authority. All these organizations have worked in a fine spirit of cooperation and if the housing program is not moving at the rapid rate for which early hopes were entertained, the principal reason is the shortage of building materials. That has been taken care of, in part at least, by the Veterans' Emergency Housing Act to which I have previously referred. Title I of the pending Wagner-Ellender-Taft bill, officially designated as the General Housing Act of 1946, would effect this permanent consolidation by regular legislative process; it has passed the Senate and is now pending in the House of Representatives. Since many objections to title I have been voiced and since there is some doubt as to speedy enactment of the Wagner-Ellender-Taft bill by the House in its present form, this action of the President in seeking to effect such consolidation under the Reorganization Act has the appearance of an attempt to rush a highly debatable matter through Congress without adequate consideration by that body. |