Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1955-05-13
.House-Passed
Defense Bill
Goes 10 Senate
By ROBERT X. WALSH


program accenting air and atomic
power over military manpower
moved to the Senate today with
1872 to 0 support in the House.
The s3l,488. 2O6, 900 appropria-
ton bill for the armed forces in
the fiscal year starting July l
went through the House last
night, unchanged in fund items
and military personnel cuts to-
falling lot 800 for the Army, Navy
and Marine Corps.
But near the end of a two-day
barrage of talk and attempted
amendments. the measure barely
survived a drive by Armed Serv-
ices Committee Chairman Vinson
to take the Government out of
the business" of various depart
ment projects that might be han
died by private contractors.
Tie Broken
In display of parliamentary
upSetS seldom seen in the House,
the Vinson amendment lost and
then won tentative tests, only to
fall in a fiEal showdown. Repre-
sentative Keough, Democrat, Of
New York, presiding at the time,
broke a 120-120 tie and tenta-
lively adopted a substitute
amendment which would have
weakened the Vinson amend
ment.
The original VinSon amend
ment then was tentatively
adopted 100 to 1874. But on
roll call demanded by Repre-
sentative Fogarty, Democrat. of
Rhode Island, before passage of
the bill itself. it was beaten 2U2
to 1874.
The effect of all of this was
to leave in the bill the section
Mr.. Vinson, backed by more
Republicans than Democrats,
wanted to eliminate. This re-
quires the Defense Department
to obtain House and Senate
Armed Services Committee ap-
proval of transfers of civilian
type work to private contractors.
The big controversy during
debate on amendment efforts
from II am. until almost 8 pm.
yesterday centered on attempts
by Representative Flood, Demo-
crat of Pennsylvania. to prevent
Army, Navy and Marine Corps
personnel reductions during the
coming fiscal period.
The House decisively shouted
down his proposals to keep the
Army manpoWer strength at l.
114,000 until July /. 1856, the
same strength it will have next
July l. The Presidents recon-
mendations, contained in the bill
as passed. would reduce the total
to 1,027,000. The armed serv-
ices personnel total would be
2,859,00O by July 1856, as COM
pared with 2,961,30O by next
July.
Appropriations Listed
Mr.. Flood and Representative
Andrews. Democrat, of Georgia
also were unsuccessful in efforts
to keep the Navy personnel at
672 900 and the Marines at 215,-
900 instead of the 664,000 and
$4,000 provided in the bill for
the next fiscal year, Mr.. Flood
also lost a fight to prevent 66
ships from being put in mothballs
during the coming fiscal year.
The bill. as it goes to the Sen
ate, would appropriate $780,
$4,000 for the Army, about
S290,000,000 less than this year:
$9,071, $4,000 for the Navy. about
$780, 100000 less; and $14,401.-
100000 for the Air Force. an in
crease of $3.347, 100000 over the
current fiscal year.
The 1914 billion outlay would
be new money. Actually the De-
Tense Department would have
about $43 billion, including the
money left over from previous
appropriations.
Defeat of Mr.. Floods pro-
posals came after heavy artil-
lery" went into action in
speeches by Chairman Cannon
of the Appropriations and
Chairman Vinson of the Armed