Evening star., 1939-07-16
Conferees 10 Seek
Security Accord
Tomorrow
Senate Amendments
Expected to Provide
Chief Problems
Tomorrow
Nv John C. HENRY,

Definitely on the list of must"
legislation due for final congres:
sional approval before adjournment,
but promising considerably less in
the way of tax relief than was
estimated when the House passed
the measure, the bill to amend the
Social Security Act will go before
House and Senate conference COM
mittee tomorrow morning.
Named on Friday, the day after
the Senate had enacted its version
of the amended legislation, the con-
ferees met briefly that afternoon,
but delayed until tomorrow the ac-
tual beginning of efforts to COM
promise their major differences.
Expected to provide the toughest
conference issues are Senate amend
ments to the old-age assistance Sec
ton sponsored by Senators Connally
of Texas and Johnson of Colorado,
Democrats, and adopted by roll call
votes. Something of fight also has
been promised by House conferees
on the Senate action in dropping
House provision which would have
permitted State wide reduction of
the unemployment compensation tax
where reserve funds reached point
believed adequate to protect benefit
requirements.
This provision, incidentally, is of
particular interest to the District,
since in the form adopted by the
House it would have resulted in a
material reduction of the 33 per
cent levy now imposed on District
pay rolls in covered employment.
BY the terms of the House bill, the
uniform reduction in the tax would
be permitted whenever the State or
District unemployment reserve fund
amounted to one and a half times
the highest total paid into the fund
in any single year, or not less than
one and a half times the highest
amount of compensation paid out in
benefits in any single year.
BY either standard the Districts
reserve account already is we'll be-
yond the minimum requirement and
is increasing rapidly. For instance,
as of last April 80 the District re-
serve amounted to $12,674, 900, with
revenue coming in at a rate of about
S6,000000 per year while benefit de-
mands are running closer to $2,000,-
600 yearly. BY the formulae pro-
posed for determining the minimum
reserve, the District requirement
would be one and a half times the
$6,000,000, or about 100000.
Actually in suggesting this amend
ment the House Ways and Means
Committee estimated that all ex-
cept five States probably could quail
ify for reduction within the CAL
endar year 1910 and that if the
provision were made Immediately
operative it would mean Nation
wide tax saving of nearly $3.50 900, 900
for the coming year.
Appearing before the Senate
Finance Committee, Social Security
Board Chairman Arthur j. Altmeyer
made it clear that while the board
was not urging a reduction of un-
employment compensation tax rates,
1t believed the formula for such
relief on a basis contingent with
maintaining adequate reserves would
be acceptable. -
Despite this showing In behalf of
the House amendment, the Senate
Finance Committee deleted it before
submitting the bill to the Senate,
with the explanation that your
committee feels that there has not
been enough time to develop suffi-
cient experience in the field of un-
employment compensation upon
which to base an intelligent decision
with respect to a reduction in the
contribution rates"
With no dissent recorded, the Sen
ate accepted its committee recon-
mendation on the matter.
Expected to strengthen the Sen