Evening star., 1950-02-19
Faster Congress Pace
Expected as Time for
Campaigning Nears
BY J. A. O'Leory


long session in this campaign
year.
A survey shows that, although
seven public bills have become
law since the session opened jan
uary 3, only one rates major i'm
portance. That is the Korean
legislative fire:
This leaves still cooking on the
legislative fire:
l. The omnibus appropriation
bill. covering the entire Federal
budget.
2. Tax revision, on which the
House Ways and Means Commit
tee has at least two weeks more
of public hearings, A bill prob
ably will reach the House late in
March, to be followed by Senate
hearings and floor debate.
ECA Extension Pending.
3. Extension of ECA, Marshall
Plan aid to Western Europe, on
which public hearings start Tues
day, with a joint session of the
House and Senate committees on
foreign affairs.
4. Social Security expansion,
which has passed the House, but
on which Senate hearings will last
several more weeks. 1t extends old
age contributory pensions to mil
lions of additional wage-earners
and increases the scale of benefits.
5. New housing aids for the
middle-income group, which the
Senate Banking Committee hopes
to report out soon.
6. Civil rights, which admin
stration leaders are still trying to
get before the House. One or more
of these bills also will keep the
Senate busy for several weeks at
some stage of the session.
Rent Control Fight Due.
7. What to do about rent con-
troll. which expires again June 80.
Moves for another extension are
expected to provoke a fight.
There are several other major
planks in the Truman program
that appear destined to remain
sidetracked until next year, in
cluding health insurance and re-
vision of the Taft-Hartley labor
law.
But even the seven topics listed
above, plus a variety of secondary
subjects, could keep the House
and Senate here well into the
summer unless they step on the
gas harder than they have to date.
Last year the first session of
this Congress dragged along until
October 10. This year, however,
the entire House and a third of
the Senate are up for reelection.
and most members will be anxious
to get home in time for the fall
campaign. Some of them are in
volved in earlier fights for re-
nomination in their party pri-
marieS.
Score Cards Are Meager.
For the first six weeks of this
session both the House and Sen
ate have meager score cards of
bills passed.
In addition to the For
mosa aid bill, the seven measures
that have reached the President
and been signed include: Desig-
mating children's Dental Health
Day; amending the Firearms Act;
amending the Federal Airport Act,
and measure affecting duty
exemption on tin ore.
The Senate, since January 3,
also has voted for: Repeal of Fed
,eral oleomargarine taxes; the
Lodge constitutional amendment
to split the electoral votes of each
State in presidential elections on
the ratio of the popular vote; the
equal-rights-for- women amend
ment to the Constitution; a mill
tary housing bill, and several mi
nor measures.
The oleo tax repeater is still in
joint House Senate conference
committee. The other Senate
measures are still awaiting House
passage.
The House, meanwhile, has
passed S732 million urgent
deficiency bill, a change in the
cotton-acreage allotment program,
a postal rate increase bill. meas
ure raising $93 million of
taxes from insurance companies,
and several smaller bills. These
still await Senate action.
Budget Drafts Are Progressing.
These short lists of bills passed
by one or both chambers do not,
however, fully reflect the volume
of work done since the session
opened on January 3.
Ordinarily, the House by this
time would have passed several of
the big departmental appropria-
ton bills for the fiscal year 1851
Chairman Cannon of the House
Appropriations Committee is try
ing out a one package money bill
for all departments this year,
however. and expects to have it
through the House by April Is. If
he succeeds, the House will then
be further along on appropriations
than it usually is by mid-April-
and appropriation make up a big
part of the work of an entire
session.
Therefore, while all except the
urgent deficiency bill are being
held back for presentation to the
House in one package, the SUBJ
committees are well advanced in
the drafting of the various sec
tions of the budget.
Chairman McKellar of the Sen
ate Appropriations Committee also
has his subcommittee holding