Evening star., 1941-11-03

Given Broader
Ceiling Power
Entire Enforcement
Expense Is Placed
On D. G. Government

Without a record vote, the House
this afternoon passed and sent to
the Senate the District anti-rent
profiteering bill which would auto
matically freeze rentals here at
the January level.
Action came at the close Of
nearly two hours debate, during
which Chairman Randolph of the
District Committee. described the
legislation as "a sane and proper
approach to rent control during
the period of the national emer-
gency.
Swift Senate action on the bill
was forecast late today less than an
hour after its passage by the House.
A special meeting of the Senate
District Committee for conSidera-
ton of the measure was tenta-
lively scheduled for Friday by Chair
man McCarran.
Two changes were made in the
measure before it was given ap-
proval by a mere handful of House
members who either took part in
the discussion or reclined in their
seats listening to II. At no time
were there more than As of the ABS
members on the floor.
Gives Administrator Power.
One of the amendments. offered
by Representative Patman, Demo-
crat. of Texas, would give the ao-
ministrator, who would enforce the
rent-control law, authority 10 re-
duce rentals below the January l
ceiling if he found they were not
fair and reasonable" at that time.
The other came from the Dis
trict Committee. 1t would place
the entire expense of administering
the law on the District Government.
The bill as reported to the House
would have imposed this cost on
the Federal Government.
A proposed amendment, offered
by Representative Hoffman. Repub-
lican, of Michigan, which would
have frozen rents as of January,
1910, instead of January. l94l, was
withdrawn before action on the
Patman amendment. Mr. Hoffman
said the change proposed b. Mr..
Patman would take care of his pro-
test.
Only Serious Criticism.
The only serious criticism Of the
bill came from Representative Pat
man. and he directed his attack on
a section which he declared would
not protect a tenant who felt his
rent was too high before January l.
In the midst of warm argument
with Representative Randolph, the
Texan declared
L am in sympathy with what you
are trying to do. I know something
has got to be done to keep rentals
down But I think if it is shown
a tenant is paying too much rent
something should be put in the bill
to give the administrator the power
to reduce it.
I'm not critical. I want some
protection for the groups being
imposed upon"
Section Under Fire.
Subsection A of Section 4 of the
bill was the one which drew the fire
of Representative Patman. 1t read:
ANY landlord may petition the
administrator to adjust the max
imum rent ceiling applicable to his
housing accommoda tions on the
ground that such maximum rent
ceiling is, due to peculiar circum-
stances affecting such housing ac-
commodations, substantially higher
or lower than the rent generally pre-
vailing for comparable housing ac-
commodations; whereupon the ad-
ministrator may by order adjust
such maximum rent ceiling to pro-
vide the rent generally prevailing
for comparable housing accommo-
dations as determined by the ad-
ministrator"
The Patman amendment changed
the paragraph to read:
ANY landlord may petition the
administrator to adjust the maxi
mum rent ceiling applicable to his
housing accommodations on the
tSee RENTS. Page 2-XD