Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1937-11-14
Foreign Policy
AlsOListedfOr
Discussion.
REORCANIZINC
PLAN UP FIRST
Opening Meeting
Finds Program
Unprepared.
BY G. GOULD LINCOLN.

The Seventy-fifth Congress will
square away in special session tomor-
row to enact into law the legislative
program recommended by President
Roosevelt.
This program includes measures
dealing with wages and hours of in
dustry, crop control, reorganization of
the executive departments and agencies
and regional T. V. AS, with anti
monopoly legislation as an added
starter.
The opening session at noon will
lack the color and sparkle of an adj
dress by the President, who plans to
send tomorrow his message to Con-
gress instead of delivering it in person
as he has in the past.
Since the President issued his call
for the special session, issues of great
Importance have thrust themselves to
the fore, not included in the Presi-
dents outline Of special session pro-
gram. They are business recession and
the foreign policies of the Government
Whether the President will make men,
ton OF them in his message to Con-
gress is not known. That they will
be discussed on the floor of both
houses seems inevitable. Riding on
the heels of the business recession
have come demands for modification
OF the tax laws, particularly the I'M
distributed profits tax and the capital
gains tax. The general impression
has been, however, that the admin
istration will leave tax legislation until
the regular session, which begins in
January.
Lighter Surplus Taxes Asked.
Senators Adams of Colorado and
Buckley of Ohio, Dmeocrats, said they
would introduce measures. at the spe-
cial session, however, to tighten the
surplus profits taxes.
The probabilities are that the first
subject on the program tackled in
both houses will be the reorganization
OF the executive departments. This
is the view of both Representative
Rayburn of Texas, the majority leader
OF the House, and Of Senator Barley.
the Senate leader.
Called primarily to write q new
farm law and to deal with the wages
and hours legislation, neither house is
prepared to proceed Immediately with
either one of these measures. The
Senate Committee on Agriculture,
which held hearings through subcom-
m1ttees during the recess, is still to
have its first meeting to prepare bill.
The House committee has been hard
Mt work under the leadership of Chair
man Jones Of Texas. 1t is the hope
OF the House leaders that a farm bill
will be in shape for consideration by
the House the second week of the
session.
The wages and hours bill, passed by
the Senate at its last session, is still |
In the hands of the House Committee |
on Rules, where it was buried. Just |
what to do with the bill is still to be |
determined. The strong opposition to |
the measure in the committee is be- |
lieyed to exist still. The leaders are |
not clear yet whether they will seek |
to discharge the Rules Committee |
from further consideration of the bill |
by petition signed by majority of |
the House membership and bring it |
before the House for action, or to re- !
quest that the bill be returned to the |
Committee on Labor for amendment |
and new report.
Little T. V. AS Modification.
The Norris bill for regional T. v. AS,
with power to build dams, sell hydro |
electric power and provide for other |
developments, may need modification, |
in the opinion of Senator Barley, i
who suggested that the measure might |
be modified SO as to set up research |
bodies" which would merely make |
long-range surveys and report their
findings to Congress.
There remains, therefore, of the |
four main subjects on the program
only reorganization, with which Con- |
gress may go ahead without waiting |
for committee action. The House has
ready for consideration two reorgan-
ization measures, one doing away with |
the Civil Service Commission and set
ting a single civil service administra-
tor, and the other revamping the
General Accounting Office.
The latter measure would transfer
to the Treasury Department the &C
counting work now done in the Cen
eral Accounting Office, and leave to
Congress an auditor general, who
would make merely a post audit of
expenditures. There is strong oppo-
sition in the House to both these pro-
posak. However, Majority Leader
RAyburn expressed the opinion yester-
day that the House would begin its
work with these two bills.
While the House has tackled the
Presidents recommendations for re-
organization in four or five separate
nneasures-three Of which were passed
by, the House and sent TO the Senate |
last session-the Senate Select Com
n1ittee on Reorganization, headed by
Senator Byrnes of South Carolina,
has reported an omnibus bill which is |
now on the Senate calendar. It has |
been Senator Byrnes' plan to bring |
this bill before the Senate at the earli- |
est possible opportunity. He seems to |
have the right of way, and in this he
(see CONGRESS, Page A-3.)