Evening star., 1963-12-19

the 1918 million appropriations
bill covers most of the pro-
grams and building projects re-
quested by city officials.
Final congressional approval
c came yesterday afternoon
when the bill cleared the Sem
ate. The House had passed it q
few hours earlier.
The 1913 million spending
total is for the current fiscal
year, which now is nearly half
over.
A Hard Fight
1t took a series of hard
fought meetings before House
and Senate conferees we're able
to get together on the budget
proposals. The conference COM
mittee hurdle was cleared
Tuesday after concessions from
both conferee teams.
The Senate group, agreed to
drop all of the spending propo-
sails that the Senate had added
to the city governments budget
requests. These added items
were for welfare and education
programs.
House conferees matched
this concession by dropping
their backing for the Districts
plan to expand the welfare aid
program to children of unem-
ployed. This program had been
turned down by the Senate.
A $37.5 million Federal grant
to the city was indorsed by the
conference.
Highest Fee From q S.
Officials said the $37.5 mil
lion figure Is the highest ever
voted by Congress for the Gov
ernment's annual contribution
toward the costs Of the Ma
tion's Capital.
The amount agreed upon by
the conferees is midway be-
tween the $50 million grant
voted by Congress last year
and $45 million the Senate had
voted for the current year.
Because of a revenue pinch,
the District submitted its buds-
ct proposals in two packages
about $3.50 million last January
and a "B" budget Of about $40
million later in the season. The
"B" budget was submitted after
Congress had raised the maxi
mum Federal grant figure from
$32 million to $50 million, and
had authorized the District to
borrow an additional 500 mil
lion over a period of years for
general construction projects.
The submission of the budget
in two parts slowed down con-
greSsional action on the ap-
preparations measure, and gen.
Grated extra problems for the
two conferee teams.
The conferees met with the
House having acted earlier only
on the initial budget submis-
sion, while the Senate had be-
fore it the city's complete
budget package.
Opposes Welfare Extension
The head of the Senate con-
ference team, Senator Robert
c. Byrd, Democrat of West Vir-
ginia, argued that the proposal
to extend welfare aid to chill
dren of the unemployed could
not even be considered by the
conferees. Senator Byrd, who
strongly opposes the welfare
expansion plan, said the item
could not be before the confer
'ence committee because it was
not included in the appropria-
ton bills passed by either the
House or the Senate.
Representative hatcher.
Democrat of Kentucky, who
headed the House conferees.
said he disagreed with Senator
Byrd'S position. A majority of
the House conference members,
Mr.. hatcher said, had favored
including this welfare program
in the money bill.
Mr.. hatcher and Senator
Byrd are chairmen of the
Appropriations subcommittee
that handle the Districts
spending proposals.
Sees Bargaining Move
During yesterdays Senate
floor debate, Senator Byrd in
dicated he felt that the House
conferees had used the welfare
item as a bargaining tool to
knock out the spending items
added by the Senate to the
city's budget requests.
Senator Ribicoff, Democrat
of Connecticut, and Senator
Humphrey, Democrat of Min
neSota. said they hoped that
welfare and school items delet-
ed by the conferees would be
carried in next years budget.