Many of the departments in Washington need better housing facilities. Some
are so crowded that their work is impeded, others are so scattered that
they lose their identity. While I do not favor at this time a general
public building law, I believe it is now necessary, in accordance with
plans already sanctioned for a unified and orderly system for the
development of this city, to begin the carrying out of those plans by
authorizing the erection of three or four buildings most urgently needed by
an annual appropriation of $5,000,000.