Evening star., 1946-12-20
tanners 10 Ask
Legislation for
Broader Power,
Program includes
Freedom From D. C.
Budget Control
By Rudolph Kaufman II

ness virtually unprecedented In its
20-year history, emerged boldly into
the open today to wage a twofold
campaign to strengthen its plan
ming powers get larger staff and
more money, and streamline its
membership.
Maj. Gen. U. S. Grant, III, chair
man of the commission, told the
press following one of its tradi-
tionally closed monthly meetings
yesterday, the commission has de-
cided to:
l. Ask the coming session Of the
80th Congress to shift its annual
planning and personnel budget from
the District to the Federal Gov
ernment and to re-organize its
membership, by increasing its lay
membership from four to five, add
ing the architect of the Capitol and
a representative of the Federal
Works Administrator as ex-ofiicio
members, and dropping the chief
Of the Forest Service as an ex-
oficio member; also to authorize
the chairmen Of the Senate and
House District Committees to send
representatives to meetings they
themselves cannot attend.
Asks Preview of Plans.
2. Asks the President to issue an
executive order requiring all
agencies, both District and Federal,
to lay their development plans be-
fore the commission for advice and
recommendation when plans are
In their earliest stages and not
merely for purposes Of review after
they are finished.
Gen. Grant told reporters the
commission plans to take these
steps as part of broad legislative
1t intends to press at the
coming session.
Legislation strearllining the COM
and taking budget control
over its finances away from the
District Commissioners is the king
pin of the program. The basis for
it is report made by the Budget
Bureau in 1914 recommending to
the late President Roosevelt that
these two things be done as well as
that the agency's planning powers
clarified and increased.
Would Discard Park"
Another Recommendation in the
report would drop the word "Park"
from the commissions title to en-
phasize 1t is primarily a planning
agency. having no administrative
control over parks and to prevent
public confusion on this score.
The membership now includes .
lay chairman and three lay menl-
bers. They are appointed by the
President and serve without par,
Besides Gen. Grant, there are Henry
VI. Hubbard. pf Boston. nationally
known city planner and landscape
william A. Delano, of
New York, nationally known archie
tect, who has retired but 10 serving
until q successor is appointed, and
j. G. Nichols. Kansas City realtcr.
There are six Government officials
who now serve as ex-ofhcia mem-
bers. Beside the chairmen Of the
Senate and House District Com
mittees they are the Engineer Com
missioner of the District, the Chief
of Army Engineers, the Chief OF the
Forest Service and the director of
the National Park Service.
Appropriation Sought.
In addition to these reforms, Gen.
Grant said, the commission has
asked the Budget Bureau to approve
an appropriation of planning money
SO that the agency can make mas
ter plan for the District under the
city's new slum act.
It also has asked that the District
Commissioners be given Federal
money to find out by means OF d
census survey what constituted the
lowest one fifth income group in the
city, he said.
The slum act stipulates that only
the lowest one fifth can be given
low-cost public housing.
Other legislation to be sought
would include:
L: Appropriation for the George
Washington Memorial Parkway and
other parkway, park and play
ground projects.
2. A bill to authorize an exchange
of land between hae Government
and the Smoot Sand and Gravel Co
near Hunting Creek, Va, to round
out the borders of the Mount Ver-
non Memorial Highway.
3. A bill for the orderly develop
ment of the, National Sports Gen.
ter at the end of East Capitol street
including stadium.
4. A bill to allow civic use of the
District Armory and settle differ
ences over whether the National
Park Service or the District gov
ernment should administer ths
land surrounding it. The land In
question is the same as that In
tended for the sports center.
5. A bill authorizing the develop
ment Of East Capitol street fol
Government buildings. /
6. A bill requiring off-street park
ing space In or near all new Federal
buildings.
Z. A bill authorizing a new build
ing for the District Court and the
Court OF Appeals.
8. A bill authorizing a survey o1
large land holding institutions III
the District to see If they would moi
be better placed somewhere else and
their land returned to more concen.
trated use here.
8. Additional Federal payments
for the support of the District &C.
cording to the Overton- o 'Mahoney
formula and increase Of the District
gasoline tax to 4 cents as recon-.
mended by the commission severa'
years ago.
Mint Strikes Medal
In Honor Of Synder
BY the Associated Press
The mint announced today thai
medal has been struck in honol
Of John w. Snyder, making hin
the sixteenth Secretary of thu
Treasury to be so recognized. There
have been So secretaries.
Like others in the mint'S "Secre-