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require space. While space economies are being pursued, the continuation and expansion of public services indicate a need for additional facilities to house the necessary but less visible services of collections management, conservation, documentation, and publication.

A suitable site is being assembled adjacent to the Institution's current holdings of 21 acres at Silver Hill, Maryland.  Thirty-five acres under the jurisdiction of the General Services Administration have been transferred to the Smithsonian.  Full development of the entire site of 92 acres is viewed as a twenty-five year program; successive stages of which would be constructed when approved by Congress.  The proposed legislation seeks construction authority for the initial phase of this program.  The support facility was recognized as being essential to the future of the museums.

P.L. 93-344, the Congressional Budget Reform Act of 1974, requires year-ahead requests for the authorization of new budget authority.  (Note: Sec. 607 of that Act requires that any request for the enactment of new budget authority to continue a program or activity for a fiscal year (beginning with the fiscal year commencing October 1, 1976) shall be submitted to the Congress no later than May 15 of the year preceding the year in which such fiscal year begins.  Instructions promulgated by the Office of Management and Budget on November 12, 1975 specify that any proposals for enactment of budget authority for a new program or activity to begin in fiscal year 1978 should, to the maximum extent feasible,