The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1922-05-09
RENT BILL READY
FOR HOUSE TODAY,
CHANGED SLIGHTLY
District Committee Will
Present Plan to Ex-
tend Act.
FAIL
Five Members on Board AID.
proved-Inspectors Are
Eliminated.
FAIL

The Ball rent bill. slightly modf-
fed, will be reported to the House
today. it was agreed in the COM
mittee late yesterday afternoon,
Failure to preserve a quorum in
the committee yesterday retarded
the progress of the bill and IL
finally became necessary to adjourn
until today. An executive session
of the committee will be held this
morning.
Several sections of the bill were
accepted by the committee with
slight amendments. The increase
of rent commissioners from three
to five was approved and the in
spectors connected with the COM
mission In the past were cut off.
One Year Limit Defeated.
An effort was made by Repre-
sentative Millspaugh to limit the
life of the bill to one year, but the
motion was defeated by a vote Of
6 to 4.
Representative, MiIlspaugh then
offered an amendment which would
erect business propert! that Is
also used as residence. George r.
Linklns explained to the committee
that there had been cases where
the purchased of business property
had Deen unable 10 secure possess
sion OF building because one or
TWO rooms above the business office
happened to be rented as an apart
ment. The amendment offered by
Millspaugh provided exempting all
property declared to be business
property by the coming commission.
IL agreed hV bn
postpone action on the amendment
until later.
Representative Zihlman Offered
an amendment which provides that
in tho event that three member.
OF the commission are appointed
they shall be allowed to constitute
IA commission until such time as the
hnal appointments are made The
amendment was agreed to without
a vote.
Representative Millspaugh offer
cd an amendment which was for
the purpose Of compelling every Of
flee and employe Of the government
TO furnish information requested by
the commission. The purpose of the
amendment. he explained. was to
save the thousand dollars a year
now paid To the District assessor
for Information furnished by him to
the Rent Commission.
Representative Sproul argued
against the amendment which he
contended would destroy the eff
ficenCy of the commission. 1t is a
small sum for the amount of work
demanded of the assessor and the
information which he furnishes to
the commission is invaluable. Sproul
insisted. Representative Mills
pauGh withdrew his motion.
Plan tPunishment.
Attention was then called to an
alleged weakness in the bill which
did not compel witnesses to ap-
pear before the commission. Sew
eral amendments were offered for
the purpose of penalizing any who
failed to appear when called upon
by the commission but subsequent
objections based upon the drastic
character of such legislation result
ted in a decision that this provis-
ion be rewritten to insure the land
lord against being fined or i'm
prisoned and citizens from being
punished who fail to appear before
the commission for causes over
which they have no control.
AS one member of the committee
had been compelled to leave the
meeting a point of no quorum made
by Representative Sproul compelled
the hearings to be postponed until
today.