Work Done

The Senate got an ultimatum. It had dawdled so long over the British loan (TIME, May 6) that one day last week Majority Leader Alben W. Barkley lurched angrily from his front-row seat and, with ill-concealed irritation, served notice that he would resist "with all the powers at my command" any attempt to sidetrack the loan bill for anything else, not even the draft law, which is due to expire May 15.

Last week the Senate also:

P: Passed and sent to the White House a bill authorizing $500,000,000 federal aid to cities and municipalities for the construction & improvement of airports.

P: Confirmed the nominations of: 1) onetime Tennessee Governor Prentice Cooper as Ambassador to Peru; 2) Careerman Walter Thurston as Ambassador to Mexico; 3) Judge William Hastie as Governor of the Virgin Islands--the first Negro to hold the post.

P: Received a recommendation from the joint committee headed by Virginia's Harry Byrd that the federal payroll be reduced by 2,000,000 people from its V-J day peak (to 1,650,000).

The House, back from recess:

P: Passed a $360 million appropriation for the Departments of State, Justice and Commerce, and the Judiciary, including:

1) a $4,000-a-year pay boost for FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover (to $14,000);

2) a trimmed-down $10 million budget for the State Department's cultural programs;

3) nothing for State Department intelligence activities.

P: Received from the President a request for a $600 million appropriation for UNRRA, to complete payment of the authorized $2,700,000,000 U.S. contribution authorized for fiscal 1946.

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