Evening star., 1951-01-07
Nicely Will Offer.
Batch Of District.
Bills This Week
Stort Of Legislation
Awaits Completion of
Senate Committees
By Don S. Worren

lative program will be started this
week in the Senate when the first
batch of bills of the 82d Congress
will be offered by Chairman Nicely
of the Senate District Committee.
Some of these are old measures
that were lost in the shuttle in the
last Congress. A few are new
to be introduced at the
request of the Commissioners.
Legislative work, however, still
is temporarily on a sidetrack.
awaiting completion of the reor-
ganization of Senate committees.
Democratic committee assignments
have been charted by Senate lead
ers but they will not be confirmed
by the Senate until after the Re-
publicans have agreed on who gets
the better assignments.
Dispersal a Prime Issue.
One of the issues of prime in
terest to Washington is legislation
providing for dispersal of some
key Government agencies into
suburban areas 10 to 20 miles
away from the Capitol.
This subject already is under
study by subcommittee of the
Senate Public Works Committee.
Consideration of the bill prob
ably will be resumed during the
week by a subcommittee headed by
Senator Holland, Democrat, of
Florida.
Chairman Nicely of the District
Committee plans to push with
moves arising from the District
Committee inquiry of last year
into unauthorized wire tapping
by members of the Metropolitan
Police Department.
To Offer, Wire-Tap Bill.
He plans to reintroduce, per-
haps tomorrow, a bill which would
put ban on wire tapping by any
local enforcement agents except
when specifically authorized by
a warrant or order by a Federal
Court.
In such cases, according to the
committee report. information OBJ
tanned by overlapping in cases
involving the safety of human
life, could be used in court, but
critics of the wording of the bill
say this is not specifically stated
in the bill.
Senator Nicely also plans to
present to the Senate a resolution
directing the Vice President to
cite a witness in the ire-tapping
inquiry for contempt of the Sem
ate for refusal to answer questions
at the Senate hearings. This is
directed at Henry w. Grunewald,
former public relations man who
at one time did some investiga-
ton work for Pan American Air
ways.
Shimon Action Pending.
Pending also before the Senate
is a recommendation for police
trial board action against Police
1t. Joseph w. Shimon. 1t.
Shimon. witness before the COM
mittee. is a former detective as
signed to the office of the United
States Attorney. He admitted to
the committee that he had tapped
wires in connection with cases he
was working on.
One of the new measures Sem
ator Nicely plans to introduce is
request by the District Com
missioners for compensatory time
off for police and firemen work.
ing on stated legal holidays.
These would be New Years Day,
Washington's Birthday, Memo
rial Day. the Fourth of July, La
Dor Day, Armistice Day. Thanks
giving, Christmas, and the day
Of Inauguration of the President.
This bill'would apply to Metro
politan Police and the Fire De-
partment, and the White House
and United States Park Police.
Two other measures to be Of
fered by Senator Nicely would
provide a license tax of $25 for
ambulances and similar vehicles
for hire, and authorize the Com
missioners to settle claims against
persons or corporations up to a
limit of $4,000. The present
limit is $4,000. This proposed
authority would not apply to
claims or suits for taxes or to
cases of special assessments.
To Reintroduce Other Bills.
Chairman Nicely also plans tc
reintroduce the following bills
which died with the 81st Con-
gress:
The Nicely bill to create a Com
mission on Human Rights, which
was intended to apply the Golden
Rule in working out relations be-
tween races and creeds.
Amending the District mini
mum wage law to include men
as well as women and children
in it's coverage.
To make cancer a reportable
disease. This measure was passed
by both the House and Senate
in the last Congress but failed
of enactment because the Sen
ate made a clarifying amendment
to the House bill, and the House
failed in either accepting the
amendment or sending the hill