Closing the Books on the 90th

Careening toward adjournment, Congress last week approved the largest defense appropriation in history ($72 billion) and the stingiest foreign-aid appropriation ($1.75 billion). Those two figures told much about the week on Capitol Hill, and indeed about the entire contentious, niggardly 90th.

The week began with a slapstick squabble over a bill to waive the requirement that radio and television grant equal time to all candidates. The waiver would have cleared the way for presidential debates among the major candidates--something that Hubert Humphrey wants and Richard Nixon, as the man with a big lead to preserve, does not. In their maneuvering over the bill the Democrats staged a lock-in in the House, and the Republicans held a sit-out in the Senate. When House Republicans conducted a 27-hour filibuster by insisting on time-consuming roll calls (45 of them, each requiring roughly 30 minutes), Speaker John McCormack finally locked the doors for the first time since 1917. With a captive quorum, Democrats were able to ram the measure through.

In the Senate, however, wily Minor ity Leader Everett Dirksen reversed the procedure by stationing a page outside the doors to send Republicans away. Lacking a quorum of 51 the Senate was stymied, and Majority Leader Mike Mansfield finally signaled defeat 1 TV debates.

Tough Act. With the session drawing to a close, the 90th Congress could be faulted for having broken little fresh ground in the areas of social and ban reform. Nonetheless the 90th did have a tough act to follow. The 89th had all but swept the legislative agenda clean-its successor, with 50 more Republicans in its ranks as a result of the 1966 elections, was billed as the "stop, look and listen" Congress. Despite its determination to consolidate past gains, the 90th could boast some triumphs of its own. The pluses:

> An historic open-housing law covering 80% of all sales and rentals by 1970 was enacted, and a $5.3 billion three-year program to provide 1,700,000 units for low-income families and subsidies to help the poor buy homes.

> In the field of crime control, Congress authorized $400 million in grants through 1970 to help states upgrade local law enforcement, plus $150 million through 1971 to combat juvenile delinquency.

> Consumer measures forced states to conform to higher national poultry-inspection standards, initiated government studies of auto insurance and required lenders, in the heralded Truth-in-Lending Act, to provide useful information on the cost of credit purchases.

> Congress created a 58,000-acre Redwood National Park in California, a 505,000-acre North Cascades National Park in Washington, a National Water Commission to study national water-resources problems. It also ended decades of interstate controversy by authorizing a $1.3 billion plan to develop the Colorado River Basin.

Among the minuses, in addition to Congress's deplorable ax job on the foreign aid program:

> Gun-control measures, the first in 30 years, banned mail-order sales of firearms and ammunition. While better than nothing, they ignored the question of registration and licensing.

> Separate codes of ethics were adopted by the Senate, in the wake of the Tom Dodd case, and the House, following the Adam Clayton Powell investigation, but both were weak.

> A tax hike came very late, in view of the economy's inflationary fever. Moreover, Congress abdicated its purse string power by insisting that the Administration cut $6 billion from expenditures. This may be a more important shift in congressional philosophy than the end of the long-standing alliance between Republicans and Southern conservatives, achieved by the new G.O.P. leadership's policy of offering alternatives, rather than merely saying "No."

Final Throes. As adjournment approached, the weary Congress still faced the possibility that the President might try to push through the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and offer a new nominee for Chief Justice of the U.S. in place of scorned Abe Fortas. Johnson decided against submitting another nomination, but insisted that Congress act on the nuclear treaty before adjournment. The Senate, as it has frequently done during the session, ignored the President and pushed for adjournment. The House, however, was prevented from following suit by a group of liberal Democrats who hoped to keep both chambers in session until the TV-debates bill could be approved. They thereby succeeded in prolonging the life of the 90th Congress at least until this week.

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