Creaky & Cranky

"I never did cease to wonder that the U.S. is governed at all."

So joshed owlish Herbert Morrison, veteran of 14 years in the party-conscious British House of Commons, to an American friend last week. Parliamentarian Morrison, visiting Washington on a special mission (see Food), might well wonder. His arrival coincided with a sorry spectacle on Capitol Hill.

Congress had hopelessly botched the draft law (see Army & Navy). The bill to extend OPA before June 30 still floundered in a Senate committee. Competing committees wrangled over Army-Navy merger. Action had been completed on only five of 13 major appropriation bills.

The fate of the draft bill fitted a paralyzing pattern: long delay followed by frantic, last-minute improvisation. President Truman had requested draft extension last September. No bill reached the House floor until April 10. There it was emasculated. Then the May 15 deadline closed in on the Senate.

Almost unnoticed last week was a bill introduced by Wisconsin's Senator Robert Marion LaFollette Jr. to bring some efficiency to the creaky and cranky machinery of Congress. The bill had been hammered out of the findings of a joint Senate-House committee. Its proposed reforms :

P: Reduce the 81 sprawling and overlapping Congressional committees to 34.

P: Establish policy committees of majority & minority members to translate Presidential recommendations into speedier and more responsible legislation.

P: Hire expert staff assistants to research complex legislative proposals and free Congressmen from routine office tasks.

P: Raise congressional pay from $10,000 to $15,000.

The LaFollette bill sidestepped revamping rules which permit filibustering. Even so, the chances of its passing were slim--unless Congress at long last decided to take action to help itself.

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