The daily monitor leader. [volume] (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1942-19??, 1945-05-22
. BEHIND THE SCENES
IN WASHINGTON .

ecutive departments. Since the
early 10th Century, however, the
number of committees has grown
like twin Topsies. In the last
session of Congress there were
AZ Standing and eight Special
Committees in the House, 33
Standing and IL Special Com.
mittees in the Senate, four Joint
Committees, ID Commissions and
Boards.
Each of these committees Is e
little ministry in itself, with
powers and privileges duly ap-
preciated by the members there
of, who will see the merging or
liquidation of their group effect
ed only over their political dead
bodies.
REFORMATION MUST COME
Yet reform of the committee
system must come if Congress is
to be made into a more efficient
organization. So much of the
work of Congress has to be done
in Committees, yet the Congress
men simply haven't the time to
attend all the meetings of all
the committees of which they are
members. No Senator serves on
less than five committees, the
House average is two, member
ship on big committees being ex-
elusive.
1t has been estimated that Of the
1872 Committees in Congress only
p are really important-16 il
the House and IL in the Senate.
Many of the committees dupli-
cate each other.
Creation of more Joint Com
mittees has been proposed as a
remedy for this. And instead Of
having one committee in Con-
gress to match every department
or activity in the executive de-
partments, ii has been suggested
that there be created only nine
or ten policy committees, each
to deal with one broad field Of
public affairs.
All such over simplification
might in the end defeat tself. A
few big com m / e es might
be much more cumbersome than
a lot of little ones. And if all the
work must be done anyhow, in
the end there may be 1872 or even
more subcommittee carrying on
just as usual under purely pa
per reorganization.
SENIORITY RULE CALLED
VICIOUS"
Far more vicious than the COM
mittee system itself, perhaps, is
the unwritten seniority rule by
which a member once assigned
to a committee may stay with
that committee during his car
eer, advancing in rank in his
committee as he Is reelected
term after term until, being the
oldest in point of service he is
eligible to become its chairman
regardless of his ability.
Modification of Congressional
custom to permit the election Of
chairmen it opposed, however,
on the ground that it would en-
courage log-rolling and deals
among Congressman for votes
on coveted chairmanships. One
compromise to meet this objec-
ton would be to limit the num-
Der of years a Congressman
might hold a craftsmanship.
Whatever reform of the Con-
gressional committee syste m
may be decided upon and recon-
mended to Congress, there is a
still further reform suggested by
Ronald Young, former CHI i e 1
clerk of the Senate Foreign Re-
lations Committee, to create a
Legislative Cabinet" in each
House, made up of the chairmen
Of the major committees. The
function of this Legislative Cab
iret would be to work more
closely with the President, Gre
ate co-ordinated legislative
program in each session of the
Congress and then work for the
passage of that program. Such a
Legislative Cabinet would re-
place the present party leader
ship in Congress.