Evening star., 1937-06-13
REORGANIZATION
GROUPS TO MEET
Three Units Studying Fed.
era' Changes to Resume
Work This Week.
BY WILL p. KENNEDY,


Efforts towards reorganization OF
the administrative branch Of the Gov
ernment will be made in three COM
mittees and on both House and Sen
ate sides Of the Capitol this week.
| Majority Leader Robinson has prom
ised to call meeting Of Senate men,
bers of the Joint Committee on Gov
eminent Organization to study Presi-
dent Roosevelt's new omnibus bill for
carrying out principal recommends
tions Of the Brownlow Committee re-
port. Chairman Cochran has stated
he will have a meeting of the House
Reorganization Committee as soon
as five absent members return, and
the original committee on reorganiza-
ton, of which Senator Byrd. Demo-
crat, Of Virginia, is chairman, also
will convene this week.
| The President has indicated to
Congress leaders that he wishes the
reorganization legislation put through
at this session His new bill is in
the nature OF compromise. 1t means
some relatively minor concessions to
objections raised in the joint commit
tee meetings, but still gives him more
| unrestricted power to reorganize the
executive branch, without time limit.
than Congress leaders are said to feel
he should have.
Lively Session Seen
Senate members of the joint com.
mittee have had an opportunity to
study the new draft since Thursday,
and a spirited session is indicated.
The two chief objections to the bill
in the eyes of some Senators are
that it grants the President too much
power and that it proposes removal
Of the accounting system and a pre-
audit from direct responsibility TO
Congress, leaving only post audit.
The principal concessions made in
the redraft were the exemption OF GER
tain quasi judicial and Independent
establishments from the wholesale re-
grouping which would put them under
administrative authority, the point ON
which the Joint Committee rebelled at
the first meeting, and allowing the
forestry service to remain as an 1nteg-
raj part Of the Department OF Agrl-
culture. On this point Secretary Wal
lace Of Agriculture seems to have WIN
over Secretary Ickes, who sought to
| have the forestry service included in
the proposed new Department Of Con-
servation. Secretary Ickes also lost IN
his attempt to have the Army Engi-
neers' military works transferred
from the War Department.
The House committee will receive
report from Chairman Cochran for
the subcommittee which was appointed
more than week ago to confer with
Budget Bureau officials regarding what t.
course can be pursued, with White
House approval. regarding the Pres,-
dents request for an increased secre.
tariat through appropriation without
waiting to pass an authorization bill
Acting Budget Director Bell has prom
ised to submit a statement which
Chairman Cochran will transmit to
the House committee. The problem
seems to be that the salaries to be paid
these six new administrative assistants
| at the White House would have to be
held below $4,000 under the Cochran
plan, while in his new bill sent to the
Senate the President asks authority
to appoint his assistants without re.
gard to civil service laws or the classi.
fication act-placing no salary limit.
House to Start Work.
The House Committee is also ex.
pected to start work on three other
bills designed to carry into effect
the Presidents reorganization pro-
gram: % General grant Of power
to fegroup, consolidate, segregate or
abolish existing agencies. ~ reor-
ganization and extension of the civil
service to all except policy -determin-
ing jobs under single administrator
responsible to the President and abo-
lition of the present commission; and
49, abolition of the General Account
ing Office and the controller general,
taking this agency away from Con-
gress and placing it in the executive
establishment, with merely post
audit rather than the pre-audit OF
Government funds. These bills. be-
ing drafted, are said to correspond
to provisions of the omnibus bill pre-.
sented by Robinson.
Chairman Cochran emphasizes
that his Reorganization Committee is
privileged, as is the Appropriations
Committee, and can bring in q bill for
immediate consideration without hav-
ing to 20 through the procedure Of
getting a special rule through the
Rules Committee. He stated very
on the three bills through his COM
mittee at this session, indicating that
one or more of these bills may soon
be given to the House for action.
"Show Down" Hoped.
Senator Byrd has said he will call
his committee together about the
middle of the week for hearing on
his bill to group the Federal Housing
Administration and Home Owners
Loan Corporation activities. He also
intends to make public additional
chapters in the report the Brookines
Institution is making on its study Of
the entire Federal service in the In
lcEeSIo VI SOFSl llulSlAIdl cluIlCHly 6ll2
efficiency.
The hearing will include Brookings
Institution witnesses who made the
study, Chairman Fahy of the Federal
Home Loan Bank Board and chair
man of the board Of the Home Own
ers' Loan Corporation, who last week
opposed the Byrd bill; Stewart Nc
Donald, Federal Housing Admins
traitor, and other officials who have
approved the Byrd bill in principle.
Senator Byrd says he hopes to get "a