The Daily Alaska empire., 1939-01-05
LESS OPPOSITION REPORTED TO
 REORGANIZATION BILL

President Roosevelt has indicated in his message that he will ask again for reorganization of ment departments and observers in Washington re- port there reasonable possibility that it will ter far opposition than predecessor of last year The hue and cry against that bill by the time it reached the House after Senate passage, had be- come so great that it had no chance at all Debert Clark Washington correspondent for the New York Times discussing it's chances says:
 Now however nearly year later the situation will have been somewhat altered A year ago MT. Roosevelt's opponents smarting under the cas- gaons of the Chief Executive for their slaughter of his Supreme Court reorganization proposals. year ago the Democratic party torn by dissenson, and a vocal conservative bloc, confined to party, rapidly forming. year ago the opposition had not salved its wounds with a technical defeat of the President at the polls. year ago the charge being made that MT. Roosevelt desired to be dicta tor, charge of which little is heard today.
 Actually in the view oI dispassionate observers here the bill finally killed by the House essenti ally sound bill despite the honest controversy of it's provisions But what killed it not so much the convictions of Congressman as the n- fuence of pressure groups upon them. They could not withstand the Detroit priest and the Rochester publisher nor yet the Chicago newspaper, with its great circulation, which referred to the as the dictator bill
 What was this bill, the preiminaries for which began long ago February, 1886?
 As passed by the Senate by the slim margin of seven votes March 28 last it empowered the Presi dent until July l, 1940 to regroup administrative agencies his orders to become effective until they had lain before Congress for sixty days. The House amended this to permit Congress to set aside these orders by simple majority vote
 Exempted from this bequest of power the Federal courts, the Board of Tax Appeals the Dis trct of Columbia government, the Federal Reserve System. the Army Corps of Engineers and the follow ing commissions Interstate Commerce Federal Trade, Securities and Exchange. Communications, Federal Power. Bituminous Coal and Maritime. The House added to the exempted agencies the Veterans Admin stration and the Office Education of the Interior Department.
 The bill set up Department of Welfare to CO., ordinate and promote public health, education and social welfare activities, and made the National Re- sources Committee permanent research organization entitled the National Resources Planning Board.
 The general Accounting Office abolished to- geher with the office of Controller General and their functions transferred to the Bureau of the Budget within the Treasury Department Post-audit of ex- penditures vested in Auditor General to be an agent solely of Congress and report expenditures and procedures he deemed unwise.
 The Civil Service Commission was abolished and there was created instead Civil Service Admnis- trator with a fifteen year term who would be sisted by a seven-man bipartisan advisory board. The President empowered to extend the merit system to nearly all positions not subject to Senate confirmation.
 After undergoing the minor amendments described, the bill sent back to committee by the House on April by margin of eight votes. No attempt was made to revive it before adjournment
 There were fundamentally, only two really con- in tle ubic, ca,Oe tn passing the House after Senate approval These were the ones aboshing Controller Generals office and the Civil Service Commission
 Many in both Senate and House honestly believed that Congress should retain its in the hole the person Of a Controller General responsible only to the Legsature-tllat the surrender of the power to prevent expenditures would be great surrender in deed
 Others pointed out that the General Accounting office habtually far behind in it's work that it had little more than nuisance value-vetong ex- penditures in many after they had already been made and leaving minor administrative officer innocenty but disastrously holding the bag They firmly believed that efficient post-audit would be as valuable without the same time logging the machinery of efficient government, and they noted that the Auditor General would be selected by Con- eress whereas the Controller General is a Presiden- tial appointee.
 The objections to the civil service administrator were that the concentration in one Presidential ap- pontee of all authority the civil service might well lead to serious abuses
 There were no other really fundamental objec- tions and it is significant in of that fact that the entire bill rejected instead Of being amended