During the war, authorizations and appropriations had to be enacted well in advance of obligation and spending to afford ample time for planning of production by the procurement services and by industry.  Thus our cumulative war program authorized in the period between July 1, 1940, and July 1, 1945, was 431 billion dollars, including net war commitments of Government corporations.  Expenditures against those authorizations totaled 290 billion dollars.  This left 141 billion dollars in unobligated authorizations and unliquidated obligations.

With the end of fighting, it became necessary to adjust war authorizations to the requirements of war liquidation and continuing national defense.  Intensive review of the war authorizations by both the executive and the legislative branches has been continued since VJ-day.  As a result, the authorized war program is being brought more nearly into line with expenditures.

Recisions and authorizations through the fiscal year 1946.—­Readjusting the war program, as the Congress well knows, is not an easy task.  Authorizations must not be too tight, lest we hamper necessary operations; they must not be too ample, lest we lose control of spending.  Last September, I transmitted to the Congress recommendations on the basis of which the Congress voted H.R. 4407 to repeal 50.3 billion dollars of appropriations and authorizations.  I found it necessary to veto this bill because it was used as a vehicle for legislation that would impair the reemployment program.  However, in order to preserve the fine work of the Congress on the recisions, I asked the Director of the Bureau of the Budget to place the exact amounts indicated for repeal in a nonexpendable reserve, and to advise the departments and agencies accordingly.  This has been done.

In accord with Public Law 132 of the Seventy-ninth Congress, I have transmitted recommendations for additional rescissions for the current fiscal year of appropriations amounting to 5.8 billion dollars and of contract authorizations totaling 420 million dollars.  The net reduction in authority to obligate will be 5.0 billion dollars, because, of the appropriations, 1.2 billion dollars will have to be restored in subsequent years to liquidate contract authorizations still on the books.

The appropriations recommended for repeal include 2,827 million dollars for the Navy Department, 1,421 million dollars for the War Department, 850 million dollars for lend-lease, 384 million dollars for the War Shipping Administration, and 260 million dollars for the United States Maritime Commission.  The contract authorizations proposed for repeal are for the Maritime Commission.

In addition, there are unused tonnage authorizations for construction of naval vessels now valued at 5.4 billion dollars.  In September 1945, I suggested that this authority be reviewed by the appropriate committees of the Congress, and the Congress has moved to bar construction under these authorizations during the remainder of the fiscal year 1946.  I propose to continue this prohibition in the Navy budget estimates for the fiscal year 1947 and now renew my recommendation that legislation be enacted at the earliest time to dear the statute books of these authorizations.