Evening star., 1948-04-27
Senate Passage
0fD.C:R Rent Bill.
Due Tomorrow
Speedy Ratification
Of Conference Report
Believed Certoin

S"sS'Sis~S NCHOIN
Believed Certain
The Senate tomorrow is expected
to pass and send to the White House
a bill to extend District rent control.
with some notifications, to March
81 next year.
Quick Senate ratification of the
conference report on the bill,
adopted yesterday by the House,
seemed certain, since the present
law dies Friday night. ANY delay
would leave the District with a gap
in rental price control, while the
rest of the country operated under
a new national bill.
The rent bill was one of 10 Dis
trict measures approved late yes
terday by the House, during a pause
in the oleomargine repeal tax fight.
Bills for treatment of sex offenders.
extension of child day-care centers
and regulation of optometrists were
among those passed.
Insurance Regulation.
Meanwhile, the Senate passed in
amended form a House bill for
regulation of casualty insurance
here. 1t goes to conference with
House managers to iron out differ
ences. The bill flows from the
Supreme Court decision in the
Southeastern Underwriters Associa-
ton case, holding that the business
of insurance is interstate COM
merce and subject to antitrust
statutes. Under moratorium bill
passed by Congress, the District and
the States were given to June 30
to establish local controls.
The city rent bill would extend
the District Rent Act of 194l for
nearly a year, but would modify it
to exempt from control: Transient
hotel rooms, housing completed or
converted since March 81, and non
housekeeping, furnished rooms In
private homes where there are not
more than two paying tenants.
There were only minor differences
between the House and Senate YER
sions Of the rent Sbill. These were
settled easily in the House ana Sem
ate conferences. Earlier. there had
been a proposal on the Senate side
to include a provision for vol
untary" increase in rentals up to
Is per cent, but this was left out
of the Senate bill at the request
of Chairman Buck of the Senate
District Committee.
Sex Offense Bill Passed.
The bill dealing with sex Offend
erS was passed without a dissent
ing voice, after it was outlined by
Chairman Dirksen and Representa-
tive Miller, Republican, of Nebraska,
who heads the District Subcommit-
tee on Health and Welfare.
DR.. Miller, physician, told the
House the bill would protect the
rights of the individual, while
strengthening the law against Grim
inal offenders.
He said it would not provide a
criminal penalty for the person who
is sick but would provide for his
treatment in st. Elizabeths Hospital.
The sex bill will be referred to
the KEN subcommittee of the SEN
ate District Committee.
The child day-care center bill,
as passed by the House, would ex-
tend the restricted program for the
care of children of working mothers
to June 30, 1949.
This bill will be assigned to the
Cooper Subcommittee of the Senate
District Committee.
The optometry regulation will be
sent to the same subcommittee.
Inauguration Measures.
Without any contest, the House
passed three resolutions dealing
with next January's Inauguration of
the next President. These measures,
now awaiting action by the Senate
District Committee, call for a Dis
trict outlay of S37,l0O for physical
arrangements, authorize issuance of
permits and provide for quartering
OF troops in Government buildings.
Two other bills approved by the
House and sent to the Senate would
establish the new Roman Catholic
archbishop as a corporation to con-
duct the business of the new arch
diocese here, and to increase from
Is to 80 the number of trustees of
the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral
Foundation of the District.
The House passed and sent back
to the Senate with an amendment a
bill to amend the District Revenue
Act OF l947 so as to exempt from the
5 per cent franchise tax the District
income of nonresident corporations
and unincorporated businesses
which, though selling tangible per-
sonal property here, do not main
tain Offices, official agents or ware
houses in the District.
There was general agreement be-
tween the House and Senate on this
issue, but the bill goes back to the
Senate because the House found it
necessary to exempt Navy and other
Government purchases, consum-
mated here, but involving materials
coming from outside the District and
destined to other points of the
Nation outside District boundaries.