Evening star., 1934-03-25
Field Day on the D. G. Bill.

AVN 0u O4A I1AS ~ W DAAA
Once a year the House Subcom-
rnittee on District Appropriations
holds sort of field day-come one,
come all-for the voteless taxpayers
Of Washington. It's consideration of
the bill having virtually been COM
pleted behind closed doors, members
of the subcommittee invite the citi-
zens to come and make known their
recommendations AS the committee
hearings are conducted In secret, the
delegations are admitted as they are
called, the doors are closed. and when
one delegation emerges another is
summoned.
On Friday. this years field day,
some of the delegations stood all day
in the corridor outside the committee
room on the gallery floor of the
House wing at the Capitol. There
we're no chairs. so they stood. Some
of them came to recommend bridges,
some to urge branch libraries or
schools to replace the crowded and
tnadequately equipped buildings their
children attend. Some of them asked
street repairs or street extensions.
Among them was a large delegation
of Maryland and Virginia farmers
who wanted 500 900 for the South
west market. 1t was probably the
first time in history that delegation
of farmers ever had to wait for any
thing.
The unique and the ironical fea-
ture Of such a hearing is that it
marks the first and only opportunity
local taxpayers have had to discuss
with the appropriating authorities
the use Of their tax money. Budget
Bureau assumption of authority has
relegated even the Commissioners
estimates and recommendations to
matter Of form. What the Commits
sioners send to the Budget Bureau is
regarded as highly confidential. The
Budget Bureau proceeds to its analy-
sis of the local budget behind closed
doors. The estimates are made pub
lie when Congress convenes. But the
House committee conducts its hear
ings on the bill in secret, and the
taxpayers are given their little minute
after, not before, the bill as a whole
has been examined.
Naturally. the taxpayers testify as
to specific neighborhood or city-wide
needs without necessary and detailed
knowledge of the relation of such
needs to the matter covered in the
bill. They are more or less cropping
in the dark. A group of citizens may
plead for a new school knowing the
need for that school. But, uninformed
of other needs. even more urgent,
their argument Is weakened, 1t goes
down for the record, and possibly for
later use as a text for a sermon by
some critic in Congress on the grasp
Ing nature Of local taxpayers.
This year the Commissioners seem
to be as much in the dark as anybody
else about the bill. The Commission
ers sought to change its provisions
by sending supplementary estimates
to the Budget Bureau, asking about
S4,o00,000 additional. This money
would be available from local tax
revenues. But so far the Budget
Bureau has not peeped. AS far as
anybody knows, the request for sup
Elemental estimates is in some Bud
get Bureau pigeon hole and the Dis
trict bill is almost ready for report.
Such methods in meeting and plan
ming for the needs of a growing city,
with the taxpayers shut out Of the
picture except for the annual field
day, and the Commissioners them
selves deprived of their full advisory
powers, are lf-condennatory. 1t is
not surprising that the lions share
of correcting inequities usually falls
to the Senate.