Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1935-08-22
Economic
Highlights
IN CONFERENCES

Seven major pieces of Legislation
have, at this writing, passed bo+h
houses of Congress-yet none of +bon,
have gone to the White House 60.
Executive veto or approval.
Reason: All the bills are in CON-
ference. These conferences are Soma
thing that the general public hears
little about-but they probably have
more influence on the actual fate of
disputed legislation than all the dra
matte and fiery speeches made on tbo
floors of House or Senate.
Necessity for conferences is obvious
One branch of Congress will pass q
bill. 1t then goes to the other branch
If, as often happens when really i'm.
portant laws are involved, amend.
ments or changes are made in bills bv
this second branch, some way must he
found to reconcile the differences
Conference committees, each one ems.
tomarily made up of five Senators and
five Representatives, are appointed
These men then get together, fight.
argue and sweat. They are not SUM-
posed to add any additional provisions
not passed by either branch of Con-
gress-they deal only with the points
of difference.
One important bill in conference in.
wolves amendments to the IVA act.
AS passed by the Senate, this bill gave
the IVA power to issue bonds to the
extent of $1OO,OOO,VoO. The House
version of the bill permitted only $780,
100000. Similar differences, mostly of
minor Importance, are keeping the
AAA Amendment bill, the Social
Security Act, the Rivers and Harbors
Act and the $500, 100000 Deficiency
Appropriation Act in conference.
In some cases, conferees must at
tempt to iron out basic differences.
That is true, for example, of the Pub
lie Utilities Act of 1885 and the Bank
ing Act of 1885.
In the Senate version of the Public
Utilities Act, holding companies were
given "death sentence" under which
all of them, with a few possible ex-
ceptions, would have to iauidate and
go out of business by 1910. The House
Observation-Disclosures strict regula-
ton for execution. Conference men,
bers are getting nowhere in reconcil-
ing this vast difference of opinion
and some believe that the result will
be no act at all this year.
A similar situation is holding I'M
the Banking Act. The Administration
wants an act providing for centralized
banking, under which politically-ap-
pointed board would rule the country's
banks in major particulars. This kind
of act passed the House, reached the
Senate, and faced the ire of Carter
Glass, father of the Federal Reserve
Act. Mr.. Glass wants a modernized
federal reserve system continued,
hates and scorns the idea of political
dominance of banking. The issue at
stake seems almost insoluble, unless
Presidential influence can be brought
to bear with unusually potent force.
AS matter of fact, presidents
often have better luck with their pet
projects in conference than on the
floor of branch of Congress. Reason:
Committees are smaller, more respon-
sive to pressure. If a president has
all the conferees of one branch with
him, he can often cause one or two
members from the other branch to
come over to his side.
At any rate, the conference has
assumed unusual Importance during
this session of Congress-it has event.
ually become the arbiter of almost
every bill of first Importance passed
by either house. And conference COM
mittees are likely to have to sweat
some more over bills not yet passed,
such as the "Share-the-wealth" tax
measure.