Evening star., 1950-05-23
Reorganization
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go into effect tomorrow, three were
challenged in the Senate, but sus-
tained; five have been killed by
the Senate and three await action
today.
3 Other Orders Submitted.
President Truman also sub
mitted recently three more orders
placing the Reconstruction
Finance Corp. in the Commerce
Department, and trans erin g
some Of its functions to the Hous-
ing and Home Finance Agency.
The House and Senate have until
July to decide whether they want
to challenge these three plans.
The Reorganization Act re-
auires plans to be pending on
Capitol Hill for, 60 days before
taking effect During that time q
CONSTITUTIONAL majority, of one
branch is enough to kilT them. !
This means 218 votes in the
House or 49 in the Senate. The
House took up only two plans,
affecting the CommerJe and La
bors Departments hut failed ID
muster the majority required Is
kin either. e+'}sssff.' 30
Taft Won Major Victory.
Most important of the five plans
the Senate has killed would have
reorganized the National Labor
Relations Board by abolishing the
Independent Office of General
Counsel Robert N. Denham, who
has been at odds with the
board over enforcement of the
Taft-Hartley law. Senator Taft,
Republican,. of Ohio led this sue
cessful fight. claiming the reor-
ganization plan was an indirect
attack on the labor law which
bears his name.
The other four plans which died
by Senate action would have:
Transferred to the Secretary
of the Treasury all functions of all
Treasury bureaus. 1t lost because
the banks of the country, and
Secretary Snyder himself, frowned
on putting the controller of the
currency directly under the Sec
retary.
2. Centralized all functions of
the Agriculture Department in
the Secretary, with authority to
reassign them.
3. Vested in the chairman of
the Interstate Commerce Com
mission the executive and admin
istrative functions of the agency,
leaving the rest of the commission
to devote itself to its quasi judicial
duties.
4. Vested similar powers in the
chairman of the Federal Commu-
nications Commission.
Opposition Is Weaker.
After these five plans had been
killed. the tide of opposition to
the reorganization plan began to
weaken last Friday. when the Or
der abolishing the independent
Maritime Commission escaped a
Senate vote. This plan will set
up Maritime Board in the Com
merce Department.
The administration continued to
gain ground yesterday, when the
Senate refused to veto two more
plans, namely:
Reorganizing the Federal Trade
Commission and the Federal Pow
er Commission by increasing the
powers of the chairman.
Running through all 81 plans
was the basic objective of giving
the heads of the departments and
commissions affected more control
over the administrative problems
OF their agencies. Virtually all of
them except the NLRB plan fol-
followed either in whole or in
part the findings of the Hoover
Reorganization Commission.
There has been some inconsist-
ency in Senate voting on the
plans. For example, there was no
essential difference between the
ICC and FEC orders killed last
week, and the Federal Trade and
Federal Power Commission orders
approved yesterday.
One explanation is that more
Republicans were voting for reor-
ganization yesterday, offsetting
Southern Democrats who voted
against some of the plans.