Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-02-05
THE APPROPRIATION BILLS
Earlier and Later Sessions of the Senate
Necessary to Finish Them
Six of the Measures Yet to Be Acted
Up0n-At the Present Rate an Extra
Session is Unavoidable.

There has got to be some earlier and later
sitting on the part of the Senate if the ap-
propriat ton bills are all to be passed by
the 4th of March, and if the present rate
of progression continues Five days have
been consumed in the consideration of the
District bill, the first Of the important
budgets to come before the Senate. AS
this measure contains fifty-Seven printed
pages this means rate of about eleven
pages a day. There are yet to follow the
naval bill, now pending in the House, with
forty-eight pages; the agricultural bill,
thirty pages, also in the House; the sundry
civil bill, now in Senate committee, with
107 pages; the Indian bill. not yet passed
by the Senate, with seventy-seven pages:
the diplomatic bill, with twenty-six pages,
now on the Senate calendar; and the legis-
latfve bill, just reported to the blouse, with
Iii pages. This makes a total of 4o4 pages
Yet to be considered in the Senate, not in
cludirg the general deficiency bill, which
has not yet been reported to the House,
and the length of which is, therefore, only
conjecturaL
Estimate of Time Required.
1t is low estimate that it will swell the
total Of pages to $50 at least. At the rate
of eleven pages day these measures Will
consume the time of the Senate for forty
one working days after today, provided the
District bill Is passed before adjournment
this evening. There are remaining between
now and adjournment on March only
twenty-five working days, so that, on the
basis of the calculation just had, there will
be 2U9 pages of appropria ton bills unacted
upon when this Congress expires, or al
most half of what now confronts the SEN
ate. This is probably a crude method of
computation. but it is the best at hand,
and there are items in these bills that are
sure to lead to prolonged debate.
One of these is close At hand, in the
diplomatic bill, which is the next to be
taken up for consideration in the Senate.
This is the appropriation of $5oo,oo0 for the
Hawaiian cable, and it is to be expected
that this will be made the text of fierce
debate that will reopen the entire Ha
waiian question. 1t is not beyond the range
of likelihood that the general average will
thus be maintained.
To Sit ut IL O'Clock.
To counteract this tendency there is now
pending a proposition to have the Senate
sit at IL o'clock daily rather than at noon.
This will be absolutely necessary If the
bills are to be put through before adjourn
ment, unless the republicans shall give
an earnest of their declaration that they
have no notion of consuming time by their
persistent talk on the measures.
This calculation precludes all reckoning
for general legislation between now and
March 4. 1t is not likely that muCh else
than a financial bill will be allowed to
come before the Senate, if that, and such
bill would start tremendous talk that
would eat up week at the least. AS it is
this kind of discussion is apt to crop out
at any time, to the utter decentralization
of the plans of the appropriations COM
nittec.
So that unless something happens right
soon, an extra session is among the most
imminent probabilities, from sheer lack of
time to do the necessary business.