Roughest & Tumblingest

The political issue of the year had been set by Republican Dwight Eisenhower in his dedication to a balanced budget. Since the heavily Democratic 86th Congress convened in January, few of its members had been more restless within the restraints of the balanced-budget idea than House Speaker Sam Rayburn. He was plainly and openly chafing--and when Mister Sam chafes, he chafes hard. His best opportunity so far to tilt the Eisenhower budget came last week, when the House considered housing legislation. The result was one of the roughest and tumblingest congressional fights in a long while.

Up for consideration before the House was a $2.1 billion housing bill authored by Alabama's progressive Congressman Albert Rains (the Senate had already passed a $2.6 billion housing bill). The

Rains measure was $500 million over the Administration's own bill. $800 million more than the amount called for in a substitute bill written by Florida's Democratic Representative A. Sydney Herlong and backed by Republican and conservative Southern Democratic Congressmen.

The Rains Bill Came. It was on the vote to substitute the Herlong bill for the Rains bill that the crucial test would surely come. Sam Rayburn determined to win at all cost. He summoned his lieutenants, prepared for action, and growled: "I like to lick 'em on the first try."

Rayburn's aides marshaled the Democratic troops. Telephones jangled all over Capitol Hill. Every Democrat was polled, cajoled, threatened. Majority Leader John McCormack paraded the fence sitters up and down the corridors, arguing endlessly. Alabama's Rains took a nose count, thought he smelled victory. "I tell you those Democrats are really burning," said Republican Whip Les Arends. "They are really putting the heat on."

The Republican leaders fought just as hard. Hoping desperately for a coalition of Republicans and conservative Democrats that could push the Herlong substitute through, Minority Leader Charles Halleck lashed the whip as never before. "This is the big test," Halleck told a Republican caucus on the day of vote on the Herlong substitute. "This [Rains bill] is a budget-busting bill if ever there was one--by hundreds of millions of dollars."

The Crafty Attempt. On the House floor, just before the vote, Majority Leader John McCormack was equally impassioned. Here, he said, were two philosophies--"the philosophy of the dollar and . . . the philosophy of human values." Minutes later, the House rejected the Herlong bill, 203 to 177. Charlie Halleck lost only six or seven of the voting Republicans, but such was the effectiveness of the Rayburn-McCormack effort that Southern Democrats did not cross over in nearly enough numbers.

Next day the Rains bill itself came up for consideration, and Charlie Halleck used every trick in his bag to kill it. A crafty amendment to outlaw racial discrimination in public housing rentals put Democratic liberals in a sweat: a vote for civil rights in this case would mean certain death for the entire bill, since almost every Southerner would feel obliged to desert to the Halleck forces. But Rayburn cracked down--and the liberal Democrats, led by the House's four Negro members (New York's Adam Clayton Powell, Detroit's Charles Diggs Jr., Chicago's William Dawson and Philadelphia's Robert N. C. Nix), were placed in the embarrassing position of voting against civil rights. That saved the Rains bill. It passed 261 to 160.

Republican Halleck was realistic in defeat. Said he: "We lost this one last November 4." But with the battle lost, there was still the possibility of winning the war. The House and Senate must reconcile their housing bills in conference committee before the final version goes to the White House for signing. It would be surprising indeed if President Eisenhower, having dedicated himself to balancing the budget this year, did not veto it. And if nothing else, Republican Halleck demonstrated last week that he has the votes to sustain a veto.

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