CONGRESS: PRIORITIES AT ISSUE

CAREENING toward a pre-Christmas windup of its year-long session, what may be the most delinquent Congress in U.S. history last week took time out for a classic confrontation between legislative and executive branches. The issue was inflation.

Two weeks ago, the President bitterly attacked Congress for its inflationary tendencies and threatened to veto the "Christmas tree" tax bill. Last week he added the massive Labor and Health, Education and Welfare appropriations bill and a relatively minor coalmine-safety bill to his possible veto list. Said Nixon in a letter to Republican congressional leaders: "I cannot at this critical point in the battle against inflation approve so heavy an increase in federal spending."

Nixon's words were wasted on the Republicans, however; the Democrats control Congress. After a Friday-morning breakfast caucus, Democratic leaders announced that they intended to ignore Nixon's warnings and might even try to override any presidential veto, though it is questionable whether they can muster the required two-thirds vote. Accordingly, they sent Nixon the mine-safety bill despite his threat. Though Congress appropriated $19.9 billion for HEW--roughly the amount Nixon requested--an additional $1.1 billion in spending is almost certain to be added later. Thus, the move was not likely to influence Nixon. Similarly, though a number of ornaments were removed from the tax bill that emerged from a rough-and-tumble Senate-House conference, too many were retained to please the President (see following story).

As Congress virtually completed action on all 14 major appropriations bills, it was plain that the lawmakers' priorities differed considerably from Nixon's. In three areas--agriculture, public works and transportation--they added a total of $893 million to the funds originally sought by the President. In the other ten, they appropriated a total of $7.7 billion less than requested by Nixon.

Almost the entire cut came in the form of a $5.6 billion amputation from the defense request. It first appeared that Nixon might have to settle for $1.1 billion less than he asked for in foreign aid. But late Saturday, even this appeared in doubt as the Senate rejected the $1.8 billion foreign aid money bill. The Senate action was an angry response to the House, which insisted upon granting $54.5 million to Nationalist China for jet fighters and $50 million in military aid to South Korea.

Despite Nixon's attempt to blame Capitol Hill for encouraging inflation, Democratic Congressmen argue that they will ultimately appropriate at least $6.8 billion less than the $143 billion requested by the President. That figure is misleading, since it does not take into account such continuing commitments as the increase in Social Security benefits. But the fact remains that so far Congress has trimmed actual appropriations by a substantial sum. Accordingly, Wisconsin's Democratic Senator William Proxmire concluded that the White House was guilty of a "snow job" when it complained that "Congress is spending money like a drunken sailor."

Comfortable Margin. Not all the news from Capitol Hill was bad for the White House. Having approved the Safeguard anti-ballistic missile system by only one vote last summer, the Senate, by a comfortable 15-vote margin, provided $770 million to begin building the first two ABM installations. Senate Foreign Relations committeemen, anxious to re-establish their role in military decisions, banned the deployment of U.S. combat troops to Laos or Thailand, but the Administration did not oppose the measure. Officials insist that the President has no intention of committing men to those countries.

Attempts to knock out $85 million requested by the Administration for development of a supersonic jet transport (SST) were thwarted. Two controversial --and potentially regressive--plans opposed by the Administration were defeated. One would have given state Governors veto powers over federally aided legal services for the poor. The other would have cut off federal funds to colleges that do not deal harshly with student unrest. The Administration had less luck with its voting rights revision --which was postponed--and its "Philadelphia Plan," which would have provided minority groups with construction jobs and training. At week's end, the plan appeared to have been defeated.

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