Evening star., 1936-04-26
81 DISTRICT BILLS
LIKELY TOPER|SH
IN COMMITTEES
June ! Adjournment Would
End Hopes-Mrs. Norton
Cites Progress.
46 MEASURES PASS
IN THIS SESSION
Pensions for Aged and Blind and
Job Insurance Are Out
standing Laws.
BY JAMES E. CHINN.

Eighty-seven bills affecting the Dis
trict are languiShing in subcommittee
of the District Committee, according
to check-up yesterday by Chairman
Norton. Virtually all are destined to
die if Congress carries out its present
plan to adjourn by June l.
Mrs. Norton, however, is proud of
the record made by the final session
of the Seventy-fourth Congress in dis
posing of District legislation. She is
even more elated over the attention
given District bills by the House.
Thus far, according to Mrs. Norton's
record, the Seventy Congress
has enacted As District measures.
Outstanding among them were bills
providing for old-age pensions, pen
sions for the needy blind, unemploy-
ment insurance and creation OF a
commission to select a site for the
long proposed municipal airport.
I65 Bills introduced.
Altogether, 165 District measures
have been introduced during the Sew
fourth Congress. Seventy EIGHT of
= these passed the House.
Mrs. Norton is fearful that the 81
bills now pending in subcommittee
may not even reach the calendar in
view of the plans of House leaders tc
concentrate for the next several weeks
on must" national legislation. AS
soon as the administrations tax bill is
out of the way the House will consider
the deficiency and naval appropria-
ton bills.
This program will deprive the Dis
trict of its regular day in the House
tomorrow. and also threatens to cancel
the first District day" in May. In
that event. there will be only one re-
manning day for consideration of Dis
trict legislation before June l.
Sisson Bill Heads List.
The Sisson bill providing for repeal
of the red rider" to the 1886 District
appropriation act now occupies the
preferred status among District legis-
lation on the House calendar, and more
than one day, it is believed, will be
necessary for its disposition, unless a
special rule is granted to expedite its
consideration. Thus, the fate of the
"red rider" repeater is problematical
A bill to modernize and humanize
Juvenile Court procedure, which Mrs.
Norton was anxious to push through
Congress at this session, Is one of
those which may die in the legislative
jam in the closing days. Chairman
Palmisano of the Judiciary Subcom-
mittee held this measure for several
months and then referred it back to
the full committee without recon-
mendations. The full committee is
expected to determine its fate Wednes-
day.
Measures Due to Die.
Other bills which appear to be
pigeonholed in subcommittee are the
following:
To tighten the gaming laws by
making possession of gambling para
phernaia prima facie evidence of
guilt, to enlarge the powers of the
Commissioners, to reorganize the
Parole Board, to establish a 40-hour
week for women, to change the rate
of Interest on small loans, to restore
prohibition, to prevent vivisection,
to authorize an investigation to de-
termine the feasibility of subways, to
establish a farm for inebriates, to
construct a sports center and stadium
in Anacostia Park, and the four So
called Mapes bills to increase taxa
ticn.
One of the Mapes bills would
establish weight tax on automobiles,
another would increase the gasoline
tax from to cents gallon. and a
third would substitute an income tax
for the tax on intangibles.