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Show IN WASHINGTON 'JJt . ' " F",:-:ifilw "v Trr''wr-c'cptt L ,.-,-tTvV- t'lrtW-'-1 '-'-.i1.-' ., ,.J Poor Record fyHE SECOND SESSION of the 81st congress thus far has made a poor record on behalf of the people. peo-ple. It may be that it will follow much the same pattern as the first session when it ran along for months without doing anything much, but President Truman kept pounding away until finally he came out suprisingly well with his Fair Deal program. It is suggested that the President, Presi-dent, in his scheduled May 15 speech at Chicago, again may lay his program on the line and tell the people.- Here's what I have asked; here's what congress has done. That may act as a stimulus. One of the backward steps taken by thii congress, however, was passage of the Kerr bill which takes independent gas companies from under jurisdiction of the federal fed-eral power commission. Certainly these companies, which by the way include most of the big oil companies, were not after this bill to lower natural gas prices. The only alternative Is that they seek increased prices for natural gas for cooking and industrial purposes pur-poses from millions of users. Ironically, Senator Kerr of Oklahoma was one of the staunch supporters of the public pub-lic power issue in the first session ses-sion of this congress when the congress adopted a policy of transmission of public power over publicly owned transmission transmis-sion lines. But the senator, ' himself a millionaire oil and gas producer of Oklahoma, adopted the opposite policy with reference to this natural gas bill and constituted himself a one-man lobby for its successful suc-cessful passage by the senate by a vote of 44 to 38. It will be remembered that an identical bill introduced by former Sen. E. H. Moore, Republican of Oklahoma, failed to pass the 80th congress when the Republicans were in control. But in this Democratic Demo-cratic controlled congress, a majority ma-jority of 22 Republicans lined up with 16 Democrats against the bill while 28 Democrats and 1C Republicans Repub-licans went down the line with Senator Kerr for his one-man bill. On this measure, Democratic National Na-tional Chairman William M. Boyle went on record as opposing the measure against Kerr, who is one of the angels of the Democratic party. Proponents of the measure passed the word around they had obtained the blessing of President Truman, although it does not seem logical he would favor it If his national na-tional chairman was opposing it. It remains to be seen at this writing writ-ing whether or not the President will veto the measure. Avoid Controversy What has happened in this second sec-ond session of the 81st congress is that during the first session the Democratic leadership went ahead on more or less non-controversial measures, or those they figured they could pass and left the tough and controversial measures for the second session. For Instance, during that first session the congress passed a complete foreign policy poli-cy trio of measures including the North Atlantic pact. Reciprocal Recip-rocal trade agreements and extension ex-tension of ECA. They passed a housing bill, extension of rent control, raising of minimum wages from 40 to 75 cents an hour. The house passed the measure extending social security and increasing in-creasing benefits. The congress passed the agricultural act of 1949, provided for grain storage facilities facili-ties for the CCC; provided for rural rur-al telephones under REA, extension exten-sion of crop insurance, increased aid to hospital construction and increased in-creased medical research; increased in-creased and expanded the atomic energy appropriation; ratified the International wheat agreement, passed a stand-by program for public works. w Predictions But this session likely will see only the extension of social security se-curity passed by the senate, a liberalized lib-eralized displaced persons bill and appropriation bill which will slash probably a billion and a half from the budget, slash ECA, and reduce excise taxes by approximately a billion dollars. What they may do with the other Fair Deal measures after the President's grass roots speeches is conjecture. A "Probe" Congress What this congress has been doing do-ing instead of taking care of legislation legis-lation is probing evcrj thing in sight from cellar to garret. It is an investigation congress. Here are a few of the probes that have been or are now going on; the "Commie" probe of the state department by a senate committee; commit-tee; house committee probe of lobbying; senate probe of food prices; house committee probe of tionopoly. |