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Show 559 A related matter involves administrative discretion to sus- pend construction. Here, the 1901 remarks of the Attorney General are pertinent: M9 An appropriation for a public improvement carries with it as a necessary implication a direction that the work shall be done, and the executive department has no power, in the absence of statutory provisions giving it discretionary authority, to decline to execute such work. Except where otherwise provided, the time for the commencement of such work and that required for its completion are necessarily committed to the sound discretion of the executive department of the Govern- ment, and in the exercise of such discretion, work once commenced may be suspended if in the judgment of the executive department such suspension will best insure the ultimate completion of the work. The suspension of the work for a legitimate object connected with its ultimate completion must not be confounded with such suspension whose purpose is a refusal to carry on the work further. A mere doubt as to the wisdom of carry- ing out a public work authorized by Congress would not justify its suspension and a refusal to complete it. Correspondingly, it is generally true that additions to au- thorized projects may not be made. In the case of navigation and flood-control projects, many statutes point in this direc- tion.350 And in imposing a restriction on legislative considera- tion, Congress declared that no project or "any modification not authorized" of navigation and flood-control projects shall be authorized by Congress unless a report has previously been submitted by the Chief of Engineers in conformity with law.351 Authorization procedure for Reclamation projects also prohibits expenditures for the construction of any new projects, new division of a project, or "new supplemental 840 23 Ops. Att't Gen. 504, 506 (1901). 860 See supra, pp. 91-92,100-105,134, 136-142. ¦" Act of July 24, 1946, § 2, 60 Stat. 641, 33 U. S. O. 701o. This provision was repeated in Act of June 30,1948, § 202, 62 Stat. 1171,1175 and in the Act of May 17,1950, § 202, 64 Stat. 163, -. 911611-51-<-87 |