Evening star., 1950-12-22
Senate Due 10 Vote
Today on National
Civil Defense Bill
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Bridges, Republican. of New
Hampshire. would relieve the FBI
Of the responsibility for conduct
ing full field Investigations of i'm
portant civil defense employees.
The investigation would be made
instead by the Civil Service Com
mission and only referred to the
FBI if some evidence of disloyalty
were turned up.
Kefauver Urges Approval.
At hearings on the bill, spokes-
men for the FBI testified that the
bureaus staff has its hands full
now without the added burden Of
civil defense investigations.
Leading off the debate. Senator
Kefauver, Democrat, Of Tennessee.
warned that I'VE are at war and
have already waited too long" He
urged the Senate to follow the
lead of the House which passed
the bill with only one dissenting
vote.
Senator Kefauver, who headed
the Armed Services subcommittee
which developed the bill, declared
that I'VE can no longer stand idle
in this business of getting ready
to meet the threat of atomic
war"
He explained that the measure
is designed ito provide only a
small Federal agency to guide and
coordinate an extensive Federal
State structure manned largely by
volunteer forces" The bread
powers granted to the Federal
administrator under the act, he
said, are necessary to meet the
requirements of an emergency
but should be controlled"
Funds for D. c. Approved.
Earlier. the Senate approved
$337 500 in civil defense funds for
the District as a part of the
national appropriation bill. The
House bill. passed Wednesday
omits the provision and the mat
ter will have to be finally decided
in conference.
Indications were that House
members would agree at least to a
major part of the District fund.
A large part Of the money,
which was urgently requested by
District civil defense authorities.
! is earmarked for the installation
of an air raid warning system
here.
For installation of the first
four units of the system for the
downtown area, District off,
cials yesterday accepted a low
bid of S45,550 by the Radio Corp.
of America. The work is to be
completed within 100 days and
will include activating equipment
as well as the electronic horns.
There was some question among
officials of the national agency
whether the District would not be
left holding the bag on this partic-
ular transaction.
Provisions of Law.
The proposed civil defense law
provides that the Federal Govern
ment would bear the entire ex-
lpense of providing such air raid
warning systems where they are
needed. The money appropriated
for the purpose represents strictly
local funds, about 80 per cent Of
which would come from District
taxes.
However, the measure does not
provide specifically for retroactive
repayment of money that local
community may spend for warn
ing equipment between now and
! the time that the national agency
can foot the bill. The opinion Of
most of the administration ex-
perts is that. unless the bill
| specifically permits such reim-
bursement, the agency would not
be permitted to grant it in the
Districts case
Senator Kefauver, however, ex-
pressed different opinion. He
said he thought the repayment
would be permitted, even though
the bill was silent on the matter.
He said he might bring the ques-