Evening star., 1951-01-07
Fair Deal in MothboIIs

The intent of the House in voting 244 to 179.
to revive the power of the Rules Committee to
bury bills opposed by any six of it's IL members
Is unmistakably clear: Barring some unforeseen
and improbable development, the controversial
features OF the Truman Fair Deal have been put
on Ice for the duration of this Congress-
In the opening days of the Slst Congress
rule was Jammed through the House which
diminished the power of the Rules Committee
This was the so-caled 21-day discharge rule
under which the chairman of a legislative COM
mlttee, with the approval of the House leadership
and majority of his committee, could bring
measure to the floor without the consent of the
Rules Committee. This device was used on eight
occasions to bring bills to the floor for vote
and all OF them were passed by decisive margins
The effect of the action of the new House
Is to close the door to this means of bringing
controversial bills to a vote 1t is undoubtedly
true that the result is to crcumscribe the demo-
cratic process, to make it more difficult for the
legislators who most directly represent the people
10 express themselves on particular issue, and
to invest six members of the Rules Committee
with very large measure of control over the
legislative processes of the House.
This control, however is by no means abso-
Lutte. There still are two ways in which bills
bottled up in the Rules Committee can be brought
10 vote. One is by petition signed by
majority of the members of the House The
other is by invoking the process of calendar
Wednesday'-two days each month on which
with some difficulty, committee chairmen can
get action on bills. There is the further point
that the majority party in the House selects
eight OF the IL members of the Rules Committee
Presumably, if the leadership wanted to ignore
the seniority rule, members amenable to the
Fair Deal viewpoint could be named to the
committee.
Despite these considerations, however, the
fact remains that the Rules Committee has re-
gained all OF its old power. Perhaps one should
ask why this has happened, why this coalition
OF Republicans and Southern Democrats in a
nominally Democratic House has been able to
override the wishes of the Fair Dealers At least
one answer seems rather obvious Pressure group
tactics have been perfected to such an extent
that some House members, for the sake of their
own political fortunes would feel compelled to
vote for certain Fair Deal measures which they
secretly oppose. But if those measures can be
kept from reaching the floor they would not
have to record their vote. And it is at that
point that the Rules Committee enters the
picture majority of it's members are from
the South or from strongly Republican districts.
They are relatively immune to Fair Deal pres
suregroup tactics, and it is politically safe for
them to turn thumbs down on Fair Deal meas
ures: In effect, they can, and often do, take
their colleagues off political hot spot.
During the House debate, gave this
as reason for reviving the old power of the
Rules Committee. There can be little doubt,
however, that 1t was an important factor in this
first rebuff to the President and the Fair Dealers.