Evening star., 1921-10-23
SUCCESS OF BUDGET
RESTS WITH SENATE
Faces Task of Concentrating Appropriating
Power in One Committee, as the
... House Has Dc.s.

bills-legislative, District of Column
bia, fortifications. sundry civil and
deficiencies. There is practically the
existed in the House prior to con-
solidation of all appropriating au-
thority in one master committee, ex-
cept that there is further distribu-
tion in the Senate. where the pension
bill goes to the pensions committee,
while in the House it was handled by
the general appropriations committee.
Rule 16 for the Senate procedure pro-
vides for the distribution of appro-
priation bills to specific committees
as follows: Agricultural bill, to the
committee on agriculture, Army and
Navy. to the military and naval COM
mittees; diplomatic, to foreign affairs,
Indian, to the Indian affairs commit
tee, pensions, to pensions; post office,
to post office. and post roads commit
tees. and rivers and harbors, to the
commerce committee.
Senator Curtis of Kansas, chair
man of the committee on indian at
fairs and MEMBER of the appropria-
tions, finance and rules committees.
has introduced a resolution calling
for centralized control of all appro-
priations by single committee.
Even when this is done there must be
a subcommittee reorganization along
the same departmental lines as has
been effected IN the House.
As matters now stand if the House
sent across an appropriation bill to
the Senate there would be no COM
mltree to which it could be properly
referred. FOR example, one suDcom-
mirtee of the House appropriations
committee VIII draft a bal Ior ali the
activities CT the Interior Department.
There Is no Senate committee with
uroad enough JurIsdi.,Iun to take
Charse Vi .iis bIii. Ine oenale ruIes
call iCr senuinS pens.vns appIuprIl-
lions 10 tne pehsiuns cvIiiIni..ee and
ihuian appl upIiatious to the Inu.an
analrs coilinlLtee, but botn pensions
and Inulan appropriations are ouIy
a part oil the In.erior Department bal.
The Senate rules call for sending the
sundry civil appropriation bill to the
general appropriations committee, but
there is to be no sundry civil bill sent
over by the House. because items
previously carried in this bill are to
be co-ordinated with other depart
ment activities with which they are
closely related. So the Senate rules
al "a m itl
This is all on the supposition that
the appropriation measures are to go
to the Senate as separate bills-but
they may go as one big co-ordinated
bill, and in that event there would
be even more need for Capitalization
OF authority in one Senate appropria-
tions committee.
CO-Ordlnated Budget,
biils carrying all the appropria-
tions for any one department of the
federal service are to be handled i'm
the House by special subcommittee.
1t is urged that if they are reported
IN one harmonious whole by the an
preparations committee the relation
ship of appropriations for each de-
Iartment can be balanced against
those for other departments, and with
reference to the total to be appro-
prlated, so that every phase of the
governments myriad activities can be
given its relative Importance and pro-
portlonate share of the total Uncle
sam has TO spend. If this co-ordin,+
ed budge; goes to the Senate and is
Spit up among nine different COM
mittees without consideration of the
relationship of these activities. the
! balance of the budget could NOT h.
preserved. because these committees
acting independently of each other
| would not consider the Relationship
Vi the departments to one another and
| to the budget as a whole,
Forward-looking leaders in both the
senate and House feel that if all an
preparations can be dovetailed into
one co-ordinated bill a real budget
will be achieved-and not until the,
will there be a real budget system
! The necessity for reorganization in
the Senate is meeting with many diff
culties. In the House there were only
seven appropriating committees. with
a total Membership of 147 out of 435
members of the House. A careful
| checking up in. the Senate shows that
there are now only eight senator's
, who are not on some appropriating
| committee, and some of them are On
| two and three such appropriatint
committees. These men naturally are
averse to losing any of their pres
tige as members of appropriating
committees. With two vacancies this
| leaveS eighty-six senators on the
present committees that have juris-
diction over money bills. There are
sixteen members of the present Sem
ate appropriations committee. This
leaves seventy senators who by a
reorganization would stand to lose
some of their prestige.
| The way. the House appropriations
| committee is divided into subcommit-
tees to handle the supply measures
for the various departments. and
which 1t is hoped and expected the
Senate will follow, is as follows: Sub
committees on-the Treasury De-
partment, District of Columbia, War
Department, legislative establish
ment, Post Office Department, Depart
ment of Agriculture. independent Of
fees, Interior Department. Navy De-
partment, departments of Commerce
and Labor, departments of State and
L dofnianciaS