The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-02-09

that basis it is the executive arm of the government which needs the most reforming Nevertheless, few people can deny that there is gen. eral public dissatisfaction over the continued rowing between Congress and the Executive.
 A reform of the Executive Agency set-up might be in order at the same time Congress goes through it's reorganization. Anything that would improve relationships between the eecutive and legislative arms of the government would be help, but since it is reform of Congress that is being talked about now, let's stick to that.
 It has often been proposed that cabinet members and the heads of administration agencies be given seats on the floor of Congress and the right to debate, without the right to vote. But even if these off, cials had to attend only those seS- sionS at which matters concerning their departments were discussed, it would keep them busy running pack and forth to Capitol Hill and might impair their efficiency as admins tratorS.
 CONGRESS WOULD QUIZ
 EXECUTIVE HEADS
 Far more practical is the proposal of Representative Estes Kefauver of Tennessee that Congress be permit ted to call eecutiv department heads fn hn pap,y1o, iCS,i,orr Cabinet members can now be called before Congressional committees, but not before the whole Congress. This might lead to the batting" of certain unpopular executives, ana furthermore it might lead to consid- erable embarrassment of the Pres ident. Questions would have to be submitted in advance, and answers might be declined.
 Still another approach to the same problem has been the sugges- tion to create special joint legisla- tive-eXecutiye committees on foreign relations, national defense and slmi- lar broad fields of government ac- tivity. Each such joint committee would have members from both houses of Congress and from State, War, Navy or other departments di- rectly concerned.
 Feeling that the Executive depart ments have been running of with the government, there has been in- creasing desire on the part of Con- gresS to recapture the leadership and make the Eecutive arms more subservient to it's will Laws estab- fishing the Smaller War Plants Corporation, Lend Lease Adminis- tration, Office of War Mobilization, and Reconversion and similar agen- cies have specified that the direc- tors shall make periodic reports to Congress.
 LACKS STAF FOR
 REPORT STUDY
 When Congress gets the reports, often the CongreSsmen do not have time to study them and do not have the staff to make studies of the re- ports for them. This leads to the desire to reform Congress so that it has some agency to keep better check on what the Eecutive depart ments are doing, how they're spend- ing the money Congress gives them.
 The General Accounting Office, created as an agency of Congress, might do this, but it's functions have ben limited to audit for fraud and it is not used to advise Con- gress on what the executive agencies of government should or should not do. Bureau of the Budget, in the Executive Office of the President, determines that, but it reports to the President and not to Congress.
 More review and control over the Executive Departments is what Congress wants. It finds expression in proposals like that of Represent ative Everett M. Dirksen, of Illinois, that all eecutive orders be suspend ed until 10 days after their issuance to give Congress chance to examine them and then veto any it doesn't like.