Evening star., 1937-03-23
PIum|ey Leads Republican
Protest on Abolition on
Pre-audit Agency.
EFFICIENCY OF OFFICE
TERMED CUSTER CAUSE
Changes for Economy Are Favored
but I, c. c. and Independent
Commissions Upheld
BY WILL P. KENNEDY.

ol1iec Vi Vic SOllIlOlltl IeueTdl con-
tinue to function effectively and inde-
pendently as provided by the budget
and accounting act Representative
Plumley, Republican, of Vermont, told
the House late yesterday. He protested
for the Republican minority against
the proposal in the Presidents re-
organization bill and in the report of
the BroWnloW Committee on Admini-
Stratlve Management for abolishing
preaudit by an agency accountable to
Congress.
Congress should protect itself. 1t
should resent, resist and show un-
mstakable disapproval of every sug-
gestion looking toward further sur
render by it of any of its rights and
prerogatives, and should most en-
phatically decline to surrender its
authority and duty to compel law
observance" he said
Detecting division within Demo-
cratic ranks to Illustrate the Presi-
dents demand for absolute unre-
stricted authority to reorganize, and
to emphasize that the opposition is
bipartisan, the Republican minority
has been Watchfully waiting, but now
a succession of G. o. P. leaders are
attacking specific features of the
Presidents bill. Representative MapeS,
Republican, of Michigan, who served
on former reorganization committee,
protested against the effort to place
the Interstate Commerce Commission
and other regulatory commissions or
independent establishments under
departmental heads. Representative
Robert Luce, Republican, of Massa-
chusettS, a member of the Banking
and Currency Committee; Representa-
tive Charles Clifford, ranking minority
member of the Committee on Expendi-
lures and member of the Joint
Committee on Reorganization, discuss
ing the Federal Corporate Conspir-
acy," and others are emphasizing
specific features of the proposed
blanket authority to the President.
Says Act Proved Worth.
Representative Plumley a member
OF the Appropriations Committee,
which sponsored the budget and &C
counting act, has been doing consid-
cradle research on this subject. The
act creating the Office of con-
troller general has worked as it was
i tended it should work, and exactly
as Congress proposed to have it work, +"
he said. This is the underlying rea-
so.l for the opposition to it and the
effort to end its control. 1t should
remain unmolested"
The Vermont legislator indorsed the
position taken by Representative
Mapes favoring reorganization for
economy and efficiency, but was
opposed to ruthless program that
would "disorganize the present set up
whereby beneficial results have been
accomplished
ITO make the Interstate Commerce
Commission, the Securities and Ex-
change Commission, the Federal Pow
er Commission and other similar in
dependent commissions into bureaus
in some departments would be very
serious mistake" he said. adding that
the proposed change would mean "po-
litical control and asserting that it
would be better to abolish those agen-
cies altogether. Plumley declared
himself "unalterably opposed to any
further increase in useless bureaus or
the trend toward bureaucracy.
Above all else, these independent
commissions should not be subjected to
domination by, or to the partisan po-
Gtical whim of any group of members,
or any one man who may be tenn
porarily swapping the whip" said
Plumley. Governmental administra-
ton machinery, overlapping as it has
been, has slowed down 1t is ineffi-
cient in operation, due to enlargement
of functions, increase in load and
change in patterns. The contem-
plated reorganization does not make
for economy"
Good Report Cited.
Plumley cited the budget and ac-
counting act of the Sixty-seventh Con-
gress, providing an independent audit
of accounts; the report of the Joint
Committee on Reorganization in the
Sixty-eighth Congress, of which Rep
resentative MapeS was member, and
the reports on the budget act by
Chairman Good of the Aprropria-
tions Committee to the House, and
Chairman Mccormick in the Senate.
The Good report said: THE only way
by which Congress can hold a check
on expenditures is to continue a con-
troll and audit of the accounts by an
independent establishment. :" 1t
will serve as check, not only on
useless expenditures, but will keep
the bureau (of the budget) more
keenly alive to a rigid performance
of its duties"
Plumley insisted that the budget
and accounting act was deliberately
enacted and the General Accounting
Office was set up for the single pur-
pose and with the single intent to do
one thing-to require law observance
in the use of appropriating moneys
to aid the Congress in this regard to
discharge a constitutional response
bility to the people"
He said this authority of Congress
over appropriations goes back to the
days of William of Orange. "The
principle that the money-producing
body shall say how the money shall
be spent has been upheld in English
and American Jurisprudence ever
since"
Since the accounting act has done
the duty it was set to do, he in
sisted, cit should not be changed OF
amended for the purpose of emascu-
lation or repeal. Rather it should be
| strengthened, he said.
Congress should protect itself. II
should resent and show its unspeak-
oI,1o Ijeo rproUa1 nf ouorv cuppeStior