Congress' Week

For weeks, roaring old (67) Representative John Taber of Auburn, N.Y., had been whacking away at the Administration's $1,353,000,000 bill for foreign aid. The various expenditures which it included had all been authorized. But Congress still had to appropriate the money, and John Taber was going to finger every dollar. He denounced the bill; he tilted furiously at the "Marshall approach," which he claimed even Marshall could not explain. He likened U.S. efforts in Europe to "a ward heeler trying to catch the floaters with a $5 bill."

But last week the crusty New York Republican stopped talking long enough to listen. George Marshall and his new Under Secretary of State, Robert Lovett, talked fast in a private session with Speaker Joe Martin, Taber and other congressional leaders. They laid out all the details of the State Department's plans for spending almost $1.5 billion, down to the last round of machine-gun ammunition the Greeks would get. Then Bob Lovett, in another closed meeting, confronted John Taber and his Appropriations Committee members. Lovett showed them secret intelligence reports about Greece, emphasized his own fears of what would happen in Europe and the rest of the world if the U.S. should welch on its commitments now.

The Convert. John Taber, by now unusually quiet, hit the Marshall-Lovett trail. A convert, he converted others. His committee reported the bill out to the House with only a few exceptions./- Taber even timed the bill carefully to ensure its passage on the floor. The House had droned through a tedious day of picky objections to the agriculture appropriation bill. It was 6:40 p.m. and the members were tired, hot and bored when Taber brought up the foreign aid appropriation. Sixty-four minutes later Speaker Joe Martin gaveled it through to a voice vote. There were only a few weak nays.

Thus the House took one of the most important steps in U.S. foreign relations since Lend-Lease. The Senate was expected to add its approval this week.

The House's action did not mean that it had bought the Administration foreign aid program lock, stock & barrel. But it did demonstrate a growing interest in the stock. The House was ready to take another step--to send a 19-man House committee to Europe to have a look for itself and study the lock and barrel.

Political Alleys. During most of its next-to-last week, the 80th Congress plodded along in the heat at dogtrot pace, breaking into sprints only when it came to political alleys. The Republican majority was still out to twist the President's tail (TIME, July 14), and Harry Truman's veto of the revived tax-cut bill did not cool any tempers. Senate Republicans brought up a measure to investigate Attorney General Tom Clark's handling of a matter close to Harry Truman's home voting booth. The author of the resolution, Missouri's Senator James P.

Kem, charged once again that Clark's investigation of Kansas City's vote frauds in last year's congressional primary (TIME, June 16) was "whitewash." But the Republicans ran into a three-day Democratic talkfest which effectively blocked a vote on the Kem resolution. It looked as if denizens of that alley wanted no snoopers.

But Senate Republicans came right back with a measure to embarrass the Administration's fiscal policy. It bore an unmistakable G.O.P. challenge: let's see you veto this one. It was a House-passed bill to permit World War II veterans to cash their $1.8 billion terminal-leave bonds at any time after Sept. 1. The bonds bore a five-year maturity date when issued./-

Dumping such a whopping amount of cash into circulation might have a serious inflationary effect. The Senate sent the bill to Harry Truman's desk by an 85-to-0 vote. Ohio's Senator Robert A. Taft said blandly: "We all agree that the Government should reduce its debt." Payment of the bonds, he said, "will reduce the debt just as much as payment of any other bonds."

Unfinished Business. For political reasons, mainly, a lot of congressional business would be left undone in Congress' last week. Among the issues certain to be left over were universal military training, the Administration-supported Stratton bill for admission of 400,000 displaced persons, President Truman's bill to establish standardized military cooperation with Latin America, the St. Lawrence River seaway project. Other bills hung over: minimum wage, health insurance, federal aid to education, housing.

/- The chief: $18 million earmarked for relief in the Russian satellite countries of Poland and Hungary.

/-In a "Veterans' Day" session the Senate approved a 20% cost-of-living boost in pensions for Civil and Spanish-American War veterans; 15% to 33% boosts in student veterans' allowances; a three-year extension of payment (up to $1,600) for automobiles for more disabled veterans.

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