Show our fur government jovern ment how it operates by B Y william brucher Bruc kari BUREAU OF THE BUDGET N EFFORT has been made A AN throughout these discussions ot of the functions of government to show where each agency has it a point of contact with mr and mrs public that Is you and a ad me but there Is one bureau which almost never touches any of us it does not deal with any of us and does not concern itself about individual ual citizens except that it consid considers ere the welfare of all collectively as taxpayers I 1 refer to the bureau of the tha budget this little known agency lei la the focal point however of all plans and programs for expenditures of public funds every government department bureau or commission Is a spending agency and every one of them line has to have the tha approval of the bureau of the budget before they can even go before a committee of congress to defend the plans they have made along about the first of august each year the lie director of the budget notifies the heads 0 of nit all governmental establishments that he will receive estimates of expenditures for the fiscal year that Is to begin in july of the following year the government budget you will remember goes to congress 9 wa when 1 en it convenes each december and upon it all of the appropriations for the succeeding fiscal year are based so the budget director begins work about august 1 although each of tho the spending agencies have had general plans mapped out they do not translate them into dollars and cents until they get the advices advises from the budget director to submit estimates the first arst step therefore in any establishment Is to fill 1111 out the skillfully arranged forms with wi t h the he figures necessary to show how much money Is needed or desired and where it Is to go once these figures are in the hands bands of the budget director and his nesi assistants si al they invite a committee from roia each establishment for hearings which are designed to supply the budget bureau with all in information format ton about every item and whether for ex example ample it Is desirable or necessary to increase the sum available for airplanes for the army or whether conditions warrant the employing of one additional stenographer in the office of the third assistant to the chief of section X or somewhere equally well down the line of importance it need not be stated that when these hearings are completed the budget officials have about abou t all of the data available con concerning concertin cernin 9 the next years plans while the budget bureau Is making up its lists however it has to keep in mind that the president previously has made an announcement that the total of government expenses shall not exceed a specific amount the budget bureau starts work paring down tho the individual items in order that the presidents command shall be obeyed and what a job it isi every establishment lish ment wants to spend as much money as it can get obviously it Is natural that the individual wants to make his agency as important and a as valuable as he can all of which causes the heads of the spending agencies to defend their estimates vigorously or orous 0 asly ly to bring all pressure to b bear ear tant they can le legitimately accomplish the budget bureau has to act independently because ordinarily the budget amount Is approximately the total which congress will appropriate and it Is necessary to hold down federal expenditures tures in the interest of the taxpayers the director of the budget confers each week with the president as the process of paring the estimate goes along by and by the director announces that the budget la Is complete and one look at it Is quite convincing as to the truth of his statement for it la Is usually a volume of about 1200 pages of closely set type on the one columns ld id a list of the purposes for which it Is proposed to spend money on the opposite column of the page lei la the and every item has its corresponding figure so you can see whether there Is a provision to buy a greater or less number of airplanes for the army in the succeeding year than was purchased in the last year or whether one department Is going to use more paper clips or less it Is at this point therefore that the bureau of budget attracts public attention for the one time of each year for the budget Is ready to be transmitted to congress by the president and when that happens the great appropriations committee of the house of representatives gets into action it holds another set of hearings bearings to which the representatives of 0 the spending ngen agencies cles are invited that they can speak for themselves that Is they can speak for themselves up to the limit which the budget bureau axed fixed there Is a law making it ft a criminal offense to ask for more passage of appropriation bills ts Is an annual job in congress and the representatives senta tives and senators assigned to the committees handling bundling them have plenty of troubles for outside interests can and do get in their work urging and even hounding tiiu u bera for increases in or for additional items yet Y t it lias has gone on year after year with reasonably renson ably satisfactory results and the proof la Is that ft A president ling has not refused to sign an bill in years A nil 1232 union |