Evening star., 1951-09-17
Needed-Some Devils Advocates

In the course of approving the appropriation
bill last week which covers the expenses of
Congress, the Senate adopted an amendment
adding $4,000 for the hire of additional en-
poyes of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
The amount of money involved was incon-
Sequential. But the principle under discussion
is important. And the unusually strong bi-par-
tiSan support for the amendment reflected what
seems to be increasing spirit of Illustration
in Congress after the relatively futile efforts
this year to cut down on prodigous Government
spending.
The idea behind the amendment, originally
proposed in another form by Senator Thye of
Minnesota, is to create in the Senate an expert
staff adequate to deal not merely with budget
recommendations for new appropriations, but
to keep Congress more intimately abreast of how
past appropriations are being spent One logical
way to go about this might be to increase the
staff of the General Accounting Office which
is an agency of the legislative branch. But as
Senator Ferguson reminded the Senate, that
move has been defeated by Congressional refusal
to appropriate the necessary funds
The situation as it now is was summed up
from two points of view by Senator Mcclellan
and Senator Ferguson. Senator Mcclellan said
that the appropriations committees of Congress
hear a one-Sided presentation of budget esti-
mates. The arguments all come from the e-people
who are recommending the money that they
want to spend 1--WE have to act on ex parte
testimony" he said "or we have to act arb-
trarily in making reductions without having
much information upon which to base reduc-
tionS'
What this means in practice was described
by Senator Ferguson For committee staff work
on the $57 billion military BILL one staff man
was assigned. For two other appropriations bills,
mo cto
assigned There are not enough staff men On
the Senate side to spare more than one for each
bill, and in most cases one man must handle
two or more bills. really adequate job of
analyzing these measures, said the Senator,
would require the services of scores of techni-
clans. All the Senate is planning to do now is
to assign three four men, with clerical help,
to the job of analyzing each appropriation bill.
Senator Dirksen thought the additional ap-
preparation requested should be a million dol
lars, instead of $50OO0 There is pending bill, to
which Senator Mcclellan referred to create
joint committee whose staff would work for both
House and Senate in analyzing all appropriations
for the House now maintains its own staff for
that purpose If, as President Truman seems to
imply, real economy is the work of the devil then
Congress needs to organize staff of devils
advocates who will spend all their time showing
ways and means to reduce estimates sent to Con-
greSs from the Budget Bureau and the President.
While the debate over the tiny $4,000 item
was in progress Senator Byrd's Joint Committee
on Reduction of Non n-eSsential Federal Expendi-
lures was hearing some dismal testimony. The
upShot of it seemed to be that Congress has
practically lost control of the Governments purse
strings. The purpose of the hearings now in
progress is to develop some plan to regain that
control, Such men as Representative Doughton,
the veteran chairman of the House Ways and
Means Committee said that there is no remain
ing method that he knows of to increase taxes
again without endangering our national economy.
Senator George, who has just finished hearings
the new tax bill, said the same thing And
this opinion is expressed in the light of pros
pective deficits of ten to fifteen billions year
if the present rate of expenditure continues
even after the new tax bill goes into effect
President Truman told an audience of cheer
ing Democrats in San Francisco the other day
that our prosperity and strength-"beyond any
thing the people ever dreamed of"-are the
result of the system of free enterprise. The mood
of Congress now is that the free enterprise syS-
tenn itself depends on whether new ways to re-
duce Government spending can be found.
Bnui Israel SYNAGOGUE