Evening star., 1951-03-04
Record of sd to Date
Congress So Absorbed in Defense Matters
Thot Other Legislation Is Sidetrueked
By Gould Lincoln

have been made in haste and
without necessary hard and fast
information.
The House has passed a bill
authorizing holders of Series E
War Bonds to hold them after
maturity and continue to draw
interest and has sent the bill to
the Senate.
Otside of the legislative pro-
gram for the military service, lit
tie has so far been done by the
Congress. The House has passed
bill to extend the life of the
Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act
and sent it over to the Senate.
The House first, however, amended
the bill in important particulars.
One amendment provides the So
called peril point" resisted by
the administration. Under this
amendment, the United States
Tariff Commission will report
when tariffs are reduced to a
point where American products
are threatened. When so notified
by the commission, the President
is required to give his reasons for
lowering tariff duties below that
point.
A housing bill has been ap-
proved by the House Banking and
Currency Committee. and some
what similar bill is pending be-
fore the Senate's corresponding
committee. The Senate Banking
and Currency Committee has ap-
proved a stop-gap control bill, ex-
tending the present law, with
some changes, to June 80 next.
This. then. is the record of ma
jor legislation before both houses
up to the present. A long list of
grants of authority by Congress,
which expires during 1851, await
extension or demise at the hands
of Congress. Principal among
them are the Rent Control Act,
which expires March 81; the Re-
ciprocal Trade Agreements Act,
which expires June IL: Titles w,
V and vi of the Defense Produc-
ton Act relating to price and
wage stabiliZation, settlement of
labor disputes and control of con-
sumner credit; the foreign eco
nomic aid program (the Marshall
Plan program) and the so called
point-four program. for aid to
undeveloped areas of the world;
the military assistance program,
implementing the North Atlantic
security treaty, all of which must
be taken care of by June 80.
Other grants of authority which
must be dealt with or permitted
to die are the authority of the
President to control exports,
June 80; authority to continue
suspension of import duties on
scrap metal, June 80: authority to
continue control of imports of
fats. oils and rice products. June
80; extension of the Selective
Service Act, July 8, 1851, and au-
thority of the President to freeze
expiring enlistments for one year.
Many Issues Delayed
These are the main subjects
that await action by Congress
to prevent expiration of author
ity. There are. however, many
more which would expire this
year without new action by Con-
gress. Picking here and there
among them, we get authority of
the Veterans Administration to
incur obligations for hospitals and
domiciliary facilities, July /: au-
thority to aid States and local
governments in advance planning
of public works, October 13; au-
thority of the President to render
naval assistance to China, July 6.
/ Certainly, legislation related to
the preparedness and war effort
have successfully pushed into
outer darkness such issues as the
repeal of the Taft Hartley Act,
| the Presidents civil rights pro-
gram, including an FEPC bill;
compulsory health insurance and
the Brannan farm plan with it's
production payments for perish
able crops. True, provision is
made for some of these proposals
in the Presidents budget-but
they will be sidetracked and
eliminated.
With a presidential election
coming off next year. it seems in
credible that such issues will be
sidetracked throughout this Con-
gress. AT present, however, they
are just not being given consid-
Grafton. Administration leaders
realize Cd that in its present
temper Congress would not agree
to these proposals-except per-
haps civil rights legislation, and
that would incur determined fill
buster by Southern Democrats,
and (2) if any of these subjects
were taken up for consideration,
they would bog down completely
the preparedness-war program.
If organized labor's boycott of
the defense setup and subsequent
work stoppages threaten the de-
fense program, Congress may
undertake some quickie labor leg
islation-perhaps amending the
Taft-Hartley Act, although it
would probably strengthen rather
than weaken that law.