$46 Billion Quick

With a show of unanimity that obviously and accurately reflected a national determination, the U.S. Senate last week passed and sent to the House a $46,848,-292,000 defense appropriations bill--largest in peacetime history and equivalent to Korean-war levels. In its 85-0 vote, the Senate provided $11.8 billion for the Army, $14.5 billion for the Navy, $18.9 billion for the Air Force (including $750 million for manned bombers that President Kennedy had not requested and did not want) and $207 million for civil defense. Earlier in the week, responding to the President's pleas for additional weapons and men, the House shouted through a bill (already passed by the Senate) authorizing Kennedy to call up 250,000 Reservists for active duty up to one year.

Last week the Congress also:

P: Began debate in the Senate on President Kennedy's $4.4 billion foreign aid bill. The key issue: the President's "fiveyear plan" giving the Administration borrowing authority to make longer-term commitments to needy nations. Opening the debate with an impassioned plea for approval of the Kennedy program. Foreign Relations Committee Chairman William Fulbright of Arkansas said that opposition to the proposal "just proves that we still are not very far away from tribal society. The only thing we ever do with enthusiasm is getting ready to bash somebody in the snoot."

P: Passed in the House and Senate and sent to the President a compromise farm bill providing a mandatory 10% cut in wheat acreage and continuing for another year the present voluntary corn and grain reduction programs. Although the President had little choice but to sign the bill, it was a far cry from the program recommended by his Agriculture Secretary Orville Freeman. Among the Freeman proposals turned down by the Congress: a scheme for setting up farmer-Government committees to set subsidy levels for each commodity.

P: Approved in both House and Senate a $135 million bill for the operation of Congress. The House declined to go along with a Senate attempt to charge taxpayers retroactively for trips Senators made last year between Washington and their home states. In its refusal, the House dented the traditional "rule of comity," which holds that each branch of Congress is absolute boss of its own financial affairs.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.