Boondoggles

Rising during the House debate last week on the $1.6 billion military construction bill, Illinois Republican Leslie Arends wrinkled his long nose at the scent of one particular section. What he objected to was some finicky fine print giving Congress veto power over Defense Department efforts to get out of such nonmilitary ventures as operating ice-cream plants, laundries, dry-cleaning plants, etc.

The section could be interpreted, said Les Arends, as "a political provision whereby members of Congress can stop the Secretary of Defense from closing commercial activity in their districts. Much is said here on the floor about the size of the federal budget, and we have been seeking ways to cut the cost of Government. By terminating or curtailing Government business-type activities that rightfully belong to private enterprise, we can reduce Government costs. And yet it is proposed by this section to retard and obstruct such a program."

Impressed, House members, sitting as the committee of the whole, struck out the section. Soon after the House reconvened (as the House), the Democrats who proposed the provision in the first place rallied votes, stuck it back in again by a 230-to-183, party-line vote. Unless the Senate amends or the President vetoes, the Defense Department will keep on making paint, roasting coffee and laundering skivvies in addition to more important duties until Congress grants permission to quit.

Also in Congress last week:

P:The House, reversing an earlier decision, agreed to a Senate provision keeping the soil-bank program alive for one more year (see BUSINESS). Under a compromise in the $3.6 billion Agriculture Department appropriation bill $500 million is allowed for the soil bank, but payments to individual farmers (now unlimited) are scaled to a maximum of $3,000.

P:The House Commerce Committee, 15-13, approved a natural-gas bill modified from the measure vetoed last session by President Eisenhower to retain some direct federal controls on natural gas produced for interstate distribution. Though the House is expected to pass the bill this session, the Senate will probably duck it until next year.

P:The House approved and sent to the Senate a $1.3 billion program containing the Administration's request for authority to barter U.S. farm surpluses to Iron Curtain nations in return for strategic materials. The bill also allows the Administration to complete the second half of a $95 million agreement that provides for loans to Poland and payment in Polish currency for U.S. farm surpluses.

P:Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Baines Johnson took a hard look at this session's Senate accomplishments, found that "by the standard of achievement, I think my colleagues on both sides of the aisle are entitled to congratulations." Passed, reported Texan Johnson, were "26 more important bills," including the Middle East resolution and establishment of the International Atomic Energy Agency as well as price supports for long staple cotton and a poultry-inspection law. (Probable losses: school aid, statehood for Hawaii and Alaska, a postal increase and U.S. membership in the world-trade fostering Organization for Trade Cooperation.) "Of course," explained the majority leader, "we will not satisfy everybody. No legislative body in the world could possibly act upon all the items which everyone considers urgent and pressing."

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