Evening star., 1936-06-21
FIGHTING BLAMED
FOR APPROVAL Of
BUT z MEASURES
Legislators Year Before Had
Passed 50 Bills for
Capital.
HOUSE is GIVEN BLAME
IN DISTRICT DAY LOSS
City Deprived of Six and Three
More Were Virtually Wasted
by Filibuster.
BY JAMES E. CHINN.

The final session OF the Seventy
fourth Congress spent more time
scrapping over controversial bills than
1t devoted to the legislation it passed
and saw enacted into law.
Altogether, only % regular District
bills went through the House and Sem
ate legislative mill, compared with 81
at the first session. And of these %,
less than half were oatalogued as ma
jor." BY comparison, the initial ses-
sion did far better job. not only in
the number of bills passed, but in the
quality of the legislation as well.
To the first session must go credit
for passing such important measures
as the financial responsibility law for
motorists, modern divorce law, and
the social security act All the Sec
ond session has to look back on in
the way of outstanding and important
District legislation is the act creating
a special commission to select a site
for the long proposed municipal air.
port, bill authorizing merger of the
Washington and Georgetown Gas
Light Cos. and an amendment to the
traffic act giving the Commissioners
authority to revoke the permits of
nonresident drivers who violate Dis
trict traffic regulations.
House Largely TO Blame.
The House is largely to blame for
the comparatively poor showing of the
second session. Six District DAYS" in
the House were lost for one reason or
another. And three more District
days were virtually wasted by a fill
buster and a fight over the Ellen
bogen rent control bill which was
finally killed by a House vote.
The Ellenbogen bill was not alone
as a fight provoker. For sheer bitter
ness and duration, battles over the
1887 appropriation bill aud the SiSson
bill providing for repeal of the red
rider" to the 1886 District appropria-
ton act, were in class by themselves.
1t took three and half months to
get the supply bill out of Congress and
on President RooSevelt's desk because
Of the old controversy over the amount
Of the Federal obligation toward Dis
trict expenses. AS the bill finally
emerged, however. it represented one
of the most important in recent years,
despite the fact. the amount of the
Federal lump sum payment was
trimmed 100000 under the present.
s5,700000 figure. But coupled with
that reduction is the guarantee of a
study by an impartial commission of
fiscal relations between the Federal
and District Governments, which IS
expected to end for some future years
the controversy over the Federal
payment.
d. C. Committee in Headlines.
The record of the first session with
respect to production and quality of
District legislation likewise is true
with respect to the production of
sensationalism. The District Com
mittee, in the first session, made
newspaper headlines with its crime
investigation and airport hearings.
The second session produced only one
major inquiry-the one that a special
Committee made of the traffic situa-
ton.
The only developments that bordered
on the sensational in the second seS-
sion were initiated by a lone mem-
ber-Representative Blanton, Demo-
crat, of Texas. 1t was Blanton who
indirectly inspired the Sisson bill be-
cause he sponsored the red rider"
and used all Of his parliamentary skill
to keep the repeater from being con-
sidered in the House. II was Blanton,
who as chairman of an Appropriations
Subcommittee in charge of the Dis
trict supply bill. sent the now famous
QUESTIONABLE to 5000 public school
teachers to find out if they believed
in God and had any Communistic
learnings.
o nthe legislative side, II District
bills died from inaction in the House
and Senate. Six were on the House
(See DISTRICT, Page B-5)