How the Democrats Want It

Before the House Ways and Means Committee last week was a sensemaking Administration proposal to make immediately available to the states an estimated $587 million for extending the unemployment compensation of eligible unemployed whose state payments had run out. The bill would cover expirations during the 15-month period from last Jan. 1 to March 31, 1959. It would extend compensation 50% longer than the maximum time allowed by state law, ranging (depending on the states) from eight to 15 weeks. It would advance to the states the necessary funds but require that the money eventually be paid back to the Federal Treasury.

Then, out of the pocket of Rhode Island Democrat Aime Forand came another proposal hastily whipped up by his fellow Democrats on the committee. The new draft served as a practical demonstration of the poles-apart recession philosophies of the Eisenhower Administration and many congressional Democrats. The Democratic proposal extended the expiration period to 24 months, beginning last June, when the recession was a pup. It provided a flat 16 weeks of federal payments, regardless of state compensation laws. It specified that the states need not repay the Federal Government. And to it, committee Democrats added a special fancy fillip: eligibility would be extended beyond the 3,400,000 workers now covered to include 900,000 seasonal workers, fishermen, government employees and the like who do not qualify for compensation under present regulations. Total estimated cost in unrecoverable funds: $1.5 billion to $2 billion.

Committee Republicans were aghast. Wisconsin's John Byrnes, with considerable accuracy, called the program a "new dole" which "goes far beyond the wildest dreams of the New Deal and Fair Deal." New York's old Dan Reed grunted that it was "panicky political irresponsibility." But on a key vote--whether to include the additional 900,000 unemployed--the Republicans lost to the committee majority, 14-7. In losing, however, they had solace. If the bill's final draft clears the Ways and Means Committee on schedule this week, it will face heavy opposition on the House floor. And in the Senate there will be the Finance Committee, where presides sharp-eyed, penny-conscious Democrat Harry Flood Byrd, a man with plenty of power and a longstanding aversion to pies in the sky.

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