Evening star., 1951-08-17
SharpCut Made
Fund Requests
House Group Hits Lack
Of Realistic Plan;
S234, 900 for District

The House Appropriations Com
mittee today sent to the House
a supplemental funds bill for an
outlay of $1,677.000,0 for sew
eral agencies after making an SO
per cent cut in requested Federal
civil defense money and a IA per
cent cut in District civil defense
requests.
The committee report was
sharply critical of the Federal
civil defense program, claiming
it failed to measure up to concepts
laid down by Congress.
For the District the bill carries
total of $370,650 City officials
had asked for an additional
81 ,040,650. The sum of $234, 900 is
for civil defense and $136,650 is
for the operation of the District
Rent Control Office.
The committee also made a
heavy cut in funds requested for
the Bureau of Narcotics, recon-
mending $250,000 or $150,000 less
than the Treasury had requested.
Garfield Hits "Hatchet Jobs"
The action brought an imme-
diate protest from Representative
Garfield, Republican, of New Jer-
sey, who said "the committee per-
formed two hatchet jobs today
which I think are tragic" He re-
ferred to the huge slice in Fed
eral civil defense requests and to
money for increasing the staff Of
the Government narcotics agents.
With enlargement of the mar
cotics staff, he said, the number
will be brought back only to the
number the bureau had in 1880.
/ The committee, headed by Rep
resentative Cannon, Democrat, OF
Missouri, said Congress recognized
the need for strong civil defense
program" when it passed the Civil
Defense Act of 1850. He added
that in its report earlier this year
on another supplemental appro-
priation the committee had rec
commended a concept of civil de-
. tense based on the training and
. education of the general public
in matters of self-protection and
the coordination of the civil de-
fense efforts in the several States
and municipalities" :"
!. THE plans and estimates sub
mitted to the committee in justi-
, f1cation of the appropriation re-
quest " the committee declared.
do not reflect this concept. Rath-
er they appear to be based on the
implementation of plans of the
' same nature as were presented TO
Congress at an earlier date.
Realistic Plan Favored.
"The confidence of the Ameri-
can people in a civil defense pro-
gram cannot be won merely by
making large appropriations of
Federal funds. Rather there must
be a realistic, well-co-ordinate
plan guaranteeing to the people
the maximum of protection for
the money expended. When such
a plan is evolved. then it should be
supplemented with Federal and
State funds as provided by au-
thoriZing legislation.
The committee said that in the
belief the primary requirements
for well-founded civil defense
program are an attack warning
and communications system and
an adequate training and educa-
tion program, the committee had
allowed the full amounts request
ed for these items.
For the Federal Civil Defense
Administration the Government
had requested a supplemental fund
of $535 million. The committee
recommended only sos ,255, 900.
The committee said the District
civil defense funds would provide
for continuation of the personnel
in the blood plasma processing
station. 1t said it also would pro-
vide about $4,000 for the warden
service, for three ultra -high-fre-
quency transmitters and receivers
requested for the Fire Department.
the requested radio equipment and
related facilities and personnel for
the warning system and the con-
troll centers; and approximately
$125,000 of the $239,163 requested
for the Office of Civil Defense.
The committee acted as House
leaders StroVe to speed passage Of
(See CIVIL DEFENSE. Page A-4)