Page:Legislative History of the AAF and USAF.djvu/45

 �This Page Declassified lAW EO12958 In his budget message, which he sent to Congress the next day, the President again emphasized production as a major require- ment for victory, stating that we must out- produce our enemies so overwheImingly that there could "be no questran of our ability to provide a crushing superiority of equipment in any theater of the world war." Congress responded wth a series of aroDriation acts which provided the larg- est war budget in our hstory. Its major zathtary appropriations in 1942 were made in the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Supple- mental Natrenal Defense Appropriation Acts, and the Military Appropriation Act, 1943, approved 2 July 1942. 0 The Fourth Supplemental National De- fense Appropriation Act, approved 30/ran- usry 1942, was particularly significant to the AAF in that it granted what was, up to that time, the largest single request for increasing Air Corps facil/tes (as a part of the so-called "12.5 billion" dollar Amy air- plane program). Of the $933,000,000 appro- priated by Congress for "expediting produc- tion of equipment and supplies for national defense," $635,000,000 was for plants, ma- chines, tools, and other facilities for air- craft assembly and for the production of component parts, $118,000,000 was for the production of engines and engine parts, and $180,000,000 was for Air Corps items to be provided by the Ordnance Department and the Chemical Warfare ServiceJ In ad- dition, the vast sum of $9,041,373,090 was appropriated for the Army air arm under the heading "JAr Corps." JA1 of the latter sum was to be spent for aircraft, spares, and spare parts  The Fifth Supplemental National Defense Appropriation Act, approved 5 March 1942, made $3,011,512,000 available to the Office of the Secretary of War for expediting pro- duction. Although none of this sum was for the AAF, the $16,440,000 appropriated under the heading "Air Corps" could be considered in this hght since it cared for certain cost increments in tarcraft manu- facture. The Shxth Supplemental National Defense Appropriation Act, approved 28 April 1942, granted an appropriation of $8,515,861,251 for the AAF,< and an adchtonal $11,16,- 898,910 was granted to the AAF by the Military Appropriation Act, 1943, approved 2 3ruly 1942. The sum of $702,2,995 was to be used for the payment of previous con- tract obligations. No funds for expediting aircraft production were provided by this appropriation act, but some of the pre- viously granted sums were available that purpose: $749,087,424 was obligated for that purpose in 1942 and an estimated $53,575,860 in 1943. TM The totaI amoun of cash granted to the AAF (Air Corps) in the first seven months of 1942 by the four appropriation acts dis- cussed above, came to $29,041,53,251. Of this sum, $23,162,867,351 was for arcraft, spare engines, and spare pats; $112,876,000 was for research and development. A total of 87,620 airplanes were o be pocured with the funds thus appropriated.  Because of their relation to the furtherrag of the war effort m general, and to the problems of aircraft production and pro- curement in particular, two other legislative measures enacted in 1942 should be men- rioned. One was he Second War Powers Act, approved 27 March 1942, which gave broader powers to the President and eminent officials /n maters pertaining to transportation in interstate commerce, the acquisition and titsposition of property, priorities, and inspection and aucht of war contractors, the utilization of vital war m- formation, etc s The other was Public Law 5.80., 77 Cong., 2 Sess. (approved 5 June 1942), entitled "An Act Providing for Sundry Matters Affecting the Military tabtishment." This act provided for he suspension of all existing laws limiting the strength of any branch of the Army and any laws placing lnnitations on the num- ber of aviation cadets in the AAF, the num- ber and grade of Army Reserve officers called to active duty, and the number of ocers of the Army who might he required to participate regularly and frequently aenat flights. It gave the Secretary of War the authority to appoint, remove, and trans- fer civilian employees as he saw fit. It provided that profi-!im[tation provisions should not apply to contracts or subcon. THIS PAGE Declassified lAW EO12958