The Washington times., 1920-11-06

concerned no ionBcr Will ho'o SNe'o
of them.
Not only is this the case, but the
Approximations Committee will be in
creased from twenty-one members to
thirty-tve. The competition for the
new places on the committee viii De
keen, for the reason thes.Appropria-
tions Committee will be the most
powerful one in the House.
The decision to have all appropria-
tion bills considered by a single COM
mittee Is in ACCORDANCE with the prin-
ciples OF the budget system. the
House intends to adhere to the budget
system principles so far as 1t can do
SO, in spite of the fact the budget bill
Is not now a law. 1t will be recalled
the President vetoed II and Congress
was Unable to pass II over the veto.
CHANGES IN RULES.
The House, under the new rule. will
be more dominant than ever in Con-
gress with respect to appropriations.
The Senate will be less powerful than
It has been in the past in this respect.
The House rule, now, as II has been
changed. is that IL the Senate In
creases an appropriation bill. that In
crease will have to be passed on by
the whole House. 1t cannot simply be
accepted by the House coaferees in
conference. ~"rr
A consequence Of this is expected
to be that the House will stand out
squarely against most of the Senate
increases. Under the practice prevail
ing for years, the Senate has
systematically increased appropriation
bills passed by the House. Then the
House has yielded to many OF the In
To- at
cases where members of the House
fought against appropriations pro-
posed in the House and then hurried
over to the Senate and urged Senators
to vote for the appropriations pro-
The change in the House rules
therefore. is expected to promote
economy.
ECONOMY PREDICTED.
Inasmuch as all the estimates Of the
departments and commissions and in
dependent bureaus Of the" Government
will have to-. be passed. on by the
House Appropriations Committee, II
will be much more feasible for that
committee to cut out Implications as
between different departments OF
bureaus than ever before. The cut
ting out Of such Implications will
make for economy and presumably fol-
efficiency. +sec'
Undoubtedly this winter win see q
strong effort by the Committee on
Appropriations to slash down esti-
mates and especially to strike at Of
fices which are largely duplicating
work done by other offices. While this
cutting out Of Implications can be ac-
complished more effectively once the
budget system is in full force, some
thing can be done at once II the
members of the House Appropria-
tions Committee are interested suffi-
GENTLY to make real trial of it.
The House Appropriations Commit
tee will to a very large extent decide
how large shall be the personnel of
the Government departments and es-
tablishments. While its recommen-
dations can, of course, be overthrown
by the House or Senate. 1t will not be
easy to override recommendation
made by a strong committee Of thirty
five members.
Throughout the campaign, Repub-
lican leaders have been stressing the
need for economy and for reducing
the force In some of the departments
which are keeping on the rolls many
of the workers who were hired in the
war period. Now that the campaign
is over. 1t will be interesting to see
whether the rolls will be reduced.
1t will be a matter of a great deal of
practical difficulty to reduce them.
Moreover. with Congress and the Ad-
working at odds, the diff
fculty will be much greater than 1.
would be otherwise. At the same
time. the pressure on Congress for
economies this winter will be intense,
and as the House Appropriations Com
mittee makes up the appropriations
bills-known as the annual supply
bills--the pressure will fall on It first.
MAY DOMINATE HOUSE.
The makeup OF the enlarged Ap-
Committee under all the
conditions becomes matter of great