Evening star., 1951-06-10
Stopgap Money Bill.
Unavoidable Under
Budget Log-Jam
By J. A. O'Leor

By J. A. o'Leoy
A stopgap resolution to kee]
Government agencies operating
after June 80 appeared unavoid
able yesterday, as Congress con
tinued to struggle with all of tn,
big money bills for the new fisca
year.
With only three weeks of tn,
old year left, the House still ha
half of the IL departmental ap
preparation bills to pass. The Sen
ate has not passed any.
Before the end of the month
both houses will have to rusf
through a temporary resolution
giving all Federal agencies au.
thority to meet payrolls and other
routine operating expenses dur
IN" July, while the regular bills
are being debated.
Resolution Now Usual Practice.
In recent years Congress has
found it increasingly difficult to
complete the Federal budget by
July /. AS result the temporary
continuing resolution, once a rar-
1ty, has become usual procedure.
This year it will take a strenuous
schedule from now on to get all
OF the budget bills through by
August.
The Senate did not take up the
f1rst of the 1852 money bills-the
Labor-Federal Security measure
until Thursday, and still will be
debating it tomorrow. The second
Dill, covering all of the Independ-
ent Offices, may be reported from
the Senate Appropriations Com
mittee Tuesday.
The national defense budget
likely to carry more than $50 bill
lion, is still in the hearing stage
IN both houses and probably will
ne one OF the last money bills put
through.
The funds to carry out Presi-
oent Truman'S $8.5 billion foreign
aid program for the next u months
cannot even be considered until
both houses hold hearings and pass
q new authorization bill.
The whole subject of budget pro-
cedure will be gone into at a hear
ing tomorrow morning before the
Senate Expenditures Committee
which is considering a wide va
riety of suggestions for improving
the law-making machinery. The
log-jam which has occurred this
year on appropriation bills will
attract added attention to the tes-
timony to be taken tomorrow.
Twice in recent years Congress
has tried new systems for handling
the budget, but both have been
abandoned.
First came the LaFollette- Mon
roney Act of 1916, which directed
the House and Senate to fix a.
ceiling on spending at the start
of each session, based on antici-
pated revenue. The theory was
that detailed appropriations
should be kept within the ceiling
1igure. If the spending ceiling
was fixed above expected revenues,
the act contemplated an affirma-
tive vote, authorizing the addi-
tional debt.
MOnroney Defends Plan.
Influential members of the
House and Senate disagreed over
the feasibility of fixing a ceiling1
at the start of a session, and after
two years the plan fell into disuse4
Senator Monroney. Democrat.
of Oklahoma, co-author of the
1916 law. said yesterday he still
believes its basic idea was sound. !
He said he would favor any plan
that would focus the attention of
Congress early. each year on the
overall picture of Government in i
come and outgo.
Next came the omnibus appro-
priation bill, which was tried last
year, largely through the efforts of
Chairman Byrd of the Joint Econ
omy Committee and Chairman
Cannon of the House Appropria-
tions Committee.
Mr.. Cannon is convinced the +
omnibus plan of presenting all of
the normal expenditures of the
Government in one bill was sue
cess both as an economy step and
q means of expediting budget ae-
ton.
Cannon Says Plan Was Best.
Early this year, however, int1u-
ential members of both parties in
the House Joined in opposing the
omnibus plan. When the House
Appropriations Committee met to
organize for the session, it re-
fused to follow the omnibus plan
this year. Mr.. Cannon recalled
yesterday that majority of the
Democrats joined him in favoring
Its retention, but were outvoted /
Mr.. Cannon predicted yesterday
that IF we had adopted the one
package bill' it would have passed
the House and gone to the Senate
by Easter, and Congress would
not now be facing the necessity