Page:Legislative History of the AAF and USAF.djvu/22

 �This Page Declassified lAW EO12958 18 of 3 April 1939 was not to apply to the number of planes to be procured and main- rained with the funds provided under this act.  Less than two weeks later, in the First Supplemental National Defense Appropri- ation Act, ][941, approved 26 June 1940, Congress granted the Air Corps $293,330,- 282 in cash and $109,259,597 in contractual authority to be used in the procurement of new airplanes, equipment, spare parts, and accessories. Additional funds were granted to the Quartermaster Corps for the purchase of land and the construction of flying fields. Tins legislatior and subse- quent supplemental and defimency ap- propriations gave real meaning to that provision of Public Law 703, 76 Cong. 3 Bess. (approved 2 July 1940) which removed irnitations on the number of airplanes which might be equipped and maintained during fical year 1941.  On 10 July 1940 President Roosevelt sub- mitred to Congress new estimates emphasm- ing th need for total defense. He requested funds for 15,000 actditionai planes for the Army, zJ,000 for the Navy, and funds for various other defense items. The total funds requested amounted to $2,161,441,99 in cash and $2,686,730,000 in contract authori- zations. The bill submitted to Congress to imple- ment the request provided $520,802,304 in cash and $1,002,600,000 in contract authori- zations œor the Air Corps. The House com- mittee hearings were brief and the bill wa reported on 31 July 1940 with the recom- mendation that 14,394 planes, with acces- sory equipment, spare engines, and spare parts, be obtained for the Air Corps at a cost of "not to exceed" $L297,133,110. No changes in Air Corps appropriations were made in the Senate, and on 9 September 1940 the appropriations for the Air Corps were granted in the Second Supplemental National Defense Appropriation Act in ex- actly the form as originally presented.  .In September 19[0 the Battle of Britain was raging. Great Bintam now stood alone in opposition to Nazi Germany and her fate depended on the success of the Royal Air Force in repelling the onslaught of the Luff- waffe. If Britain went down, then the posi- tion of the United States would be perilous indeed. This prospect forcibly impressed upon ar Depaxtment officials the neces- sity of obtaining more planes as quickly as possible. New appropriations of $60,000,000 in cash and $60,000,000 in con- tract auhorizatmn were sought ;m Septem- ber in order to accelerate the dehvery of planes. These additional funds, according to Brig. Gen. George H. Brett, Chief of the Matoriel Division, OCAC, were necessary to provide for he "costs incident to overtime, increased shits, and the costs of accelerat- ing dehvemes of raw materials" and other expenditures incident to the speeding up o plane deliveries  Congress took quick actran and granted this request by the passage of the Third Supplemental National Defense Appropri- ation Act, 1941, approved 8 October 1940. Actually, Congress granted the Air Corps $109,005,95 in cash plus contract authori- zations to the amount of $60,000,000. v In 1940 the size of the appropriations granted by Congress specifically for the Air Corps reached a new high---a total 3f $2,465,[74,558 ($1,190,014,961 in cash and $1,275,159,597 in contractual authoriza- tions) as compared wlth a total of $260,670,924 appropriated for the Air Corps in 1939. Thee appropriation act (the acts of June 13, June 26, September 9, and Oc- tober 8, 1940) provided for the procurement of a total of 18,641 planes as compared with 3,251 planes provided for by the appropri- amn acts passed in 1939.s Congress also appropriated other large sums of money, which were used for various other Air Corps purposes. These will be taken up later. On 5 April 1941, the Fifth Supplemental National Defense Appropriation Act, 1941, was approved by the President. By this act Congress granted the Air Corps $982,236,000 in cash and $524,025,000 in conract au- thorizations. The cash was to remain avail- able until 30 June 192, the contract au- thorizations were to expire on 30 June 1941. The actual sum which the House Com- mittee intended to be spent on new air- craft and spares was $1,325,111,300. Of $1,000,000,I]00 was the appropriated funds THIS PAGE Declassified lAW EO12958