Evening star., 1945-03-13
Plan Would Cut
Committees in
Congress50%
Cochron's Proposal
Also Would Eliminate
a Investigating Groups

"A proposal TO mOQernlZe thf
committee system in Congress.
by trimming in half the number
of standing committees ano
eliminating special investigating
groups was advanced today by
Representative Cochrane, Demo-
crat, of Missouri, when he
appeared at the first session OF
the Joint Committee on the Or
ganization of Congress, headed
by Senator La Toilette, Progress
sive, of Wisconsin.
Mr.. Cochran admitted from the
outset that the task of congressional
reform would not be easy.
"The big trouble you are going
to have is with the big committees, -
he said. Members are jealous of
their assignments and chairman
ships. They don't want to lose
them, and they don't want to lose
patronage"
The veteran House member
warned the Joint Committee, which
was set up to study methods of
reorganizing present legislative pro-
cedure, that it would be made
ridiculous from one end of the
Nation to the other" if it did moth
ing but raise salaries and create
more jobs. He also asked the body
to recommend creation of a research
service for Congress members and
improvements in the legislative
draft service
Some Virtually Outmoded.
Some committees, in the House at
least, Mr.. Cochran said, have be-
come virtually outmoded and should
be either abolished or merged into
other bodies. He pointed out that
he has been member of the Com
mittee on Coinage, Weights and
Measures for II years and that
during that time he can recall only
two hearings.
"One was when somebody wanted
standardized tin can," he said,
"and the other was rubber investi-
cation which was going on while
about six other committees were in
vestigating the same thing"
He proposed the following mergers
of House committees:
The committees on education, on
labor, and on immigration and natu-
ralization; on food-control and on
rivers and harbors: on territories, on
insular affairs, and on foreign
affairs; on patents and on interstate
and foreign commerce; on irrigation
and reclamation, on mines and
mining and on public lands; on un-
American affairs and on judiciary;
on invalid pensions, on pensions,
and on war claims, and on claims
and on Indian affairs. He also
recommended that the four cleo
tions committees-elections COM
mittees Nos. /, 2 and 3-and the
committee on the election of the
President, Vice President and repre-
sentatives in Congress-be combined
into single body.
Audit Committee Called Censor.
Chairman McCarran of the Sen
ate Judiciary Committee, asked the
joint body to recommend a reform
in the system under which Senate
investigating committees are de-
pendent on the Committee on
Audit and Control for their funds.
Under existing conditions" he
said, "the Audit and Control Com
mittee has set itself up as a censor
to every standing committee of the
Senate that seeks to enlighten itself
on any subject"
Senator McCarran said that
enough money should be placed at
the disposal of committees to permit
expenditures for any purpose in
connection with an investigation.
The joint resolution authorizing
the study to streamline congress
sional procedure forbids the COM
mittee to make any recommenda-
tons covering the rules, parliament
tary procedure, practices and pre-
cedence of either house. Under the
terms of the measure as amended,
the investigators must confine them
selves largely to the committee
system. Six Senators and six Rep
resentatives are members of the
Joint Committee.