"No Apologies to Be Made"

The members of Congress had scarcely unpacked their bags after returning from summer recess when President Nixon's challenge hit them. Fresh from talking to their constituents, they were well aware that the American public is impatient to get on with the country's business, but they deeply resented the President's attempt to blame them for a "very disappointing" showing. In fact, the record of the 93rd Congress is far from dismal--though unsatisfactory to the President--and the first sounds of the new session were sounds of irritation at the President's tactics.

Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield and House Speaker Carl Albert jointly declared that "Congress does not 'perform' at the behest of this President or any President. The Congress acts in accord with its independent judgment of what is best for the nation and the people. There are no apologies to be made for this Congress. It has done, it is doing, and it will continue to do the people's business." Returning to the Senate seven months after being shot in a holdup, John Stennis of Mississippi defended Congress. He said that he had heard that Senators were "not living up to their responsibilities. I don't believe one word of that."

Six Vetoes. So far this session, Democratic leaders point out, Congress has passed a total of 106 bills, a figure that compares favorably with past congressional performances. By counting up committee reports, roll-call votes, hours in session and bills enacted, the Congressional Quarterly concluded that the legislative record of the 93rd Congress so far is the equal of most (although it has sided with the President on only 43% of the issues on which he has taken a stand, as compared with 66% last year). "There are only seven Senators on the Watergate committee," says Robert Byrd, Democratic Whip in the Senate. "The remaining 528 members of Congress have been busy in other committees, and I think the idea that they have been preoccupied with Watergate should be debunked." Republican Senator Charles Percy agrees:

"I can't keep up with my work and watch the hearings. Watergate is the only issue on which my constituents are more informed than I am."

Congress has been so active, in fact, that the President has vetoed six key bills that it passed: restoration of impounded grants for rural water and sewer projects; vocational rehabilitation for the handicapped; a requirement for Senate confirmation of the present and any future director and deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget; a ban on the use of congressionally appropriated funds to pay for bombing in Cambodia; emergency medical care; and, last week, an increase in the minimum wage from $1.60 an hour to $2.20. So far, Congress has been unable to muster the forces to override the vetoes, and more vetoes are sure to come. Certain to be rejected by the President, if Congress passes them, are two bills that would circumscribe his power. One would limit his ability to commit military forces to combat without congressional approval; the other would curtail his power to impound funds appropriated by Congress.

The President's congressional troubles are not entirely due to the Democrats. Because of Watergate and the intransigent positions he took on issues early in his second term, there has been a sizable defection of Republicans. In the Senate, G.O.P. opposition to measures sponsored by the White House grew from 20% in 1972 to 34% in 1973. Senator Edward Gurney, the Watergate committee member who is most outspokenly sympathetic to the President, voted with the White House 89% of the time in 1972; this year his support fell to 59%. Democrats, of course, are also backing the White House less. Sam Ervin, who voted with the Administration 70% of the time last year, has slipped to 50%. Even so, he remains the third strongest supporter of the White House among Senate Democrats. This decline in presidential authority is a consequence not just of the Watergate scandal as such but of the failure of the Watergate-preoccupied Administration to press the legislators of both parties on the bills it wants passed.

Realizing that he had raised something of a storm by his attack on the 93rd, Nixon decided to be simultaneously relaxed and assertive when he met with G.O.P. congressional leaders last week to map out strategy for getting his legislative programs passed. "Glad to see you all," he jauntily began. During the course of the two-hour and ten-minute meeting, Watergate was not mentioned once, nor was Vice President Agnew, who happened to be present. Nixon put forward 37 different proposals, most of them reworkings of earlier bills on foreign trade, housing, energy and crime. Said a congressional leader: "He was very much in control of what he wanted to do, what he wanted to say, what he did say."

Anti-Power Mood. Once again, he was urging on Congress his New Federalism, though it goes against the congressional grain. In place of a collection of categorical grant programs, he has proposed special revenue-sharing schemes that would give federal funds to states and localities to spend pretty much as they see fit. Congress objects because it would lose control of programs it presently supervises; it also worries that local officials would use the money for purposes that were not intended. Congress has been slow to act on the revenue-sharing programs for education, urban community development and manpower training.

Nixon's foreign trade bill is similarly stalled. It would vastly increase the powers of the President by giving him the right to negotiate trade agreements or raise and lower tariffs or quotas on goods from foreign countries without congressional approval. In the wake of Watergate, Congress is scarcely in a mood to add to presidential power, though it may be willing to compromise on the issue. The President's proposal, moreover, would give him authority to grant most-favored-nation status to Communist nations, including the Soviet Union. Though this is a basic element of the American-Russian detente, Congress is unlikely to approve it without an amendment. Most members of Congress appear to favor Senator Henry Jackson's proposal to deny most-favored-nation treatment to any country that does not allow free emigration, a measure aimed mainly at easing restrictions on Soviet Jews.

The warfare between the President and Congress has not been total, however. Nixon has signed 25 major bills passed by Congress. They include a new farm program that provides payments to farmers when prices fall below a certain level; a highway act that allows cities to finance mass transit from the Highway Trust Fund; an economic stabilization act that continues for another year the President's authority to impose wage and price controls; and a boost in Social Security payments. Despite his tough rhetoric, the President has also shown a willingness to compromise on bills extending public health services, providing for a public works program, expanding airports and increasing veterans' payments.

Last week the Senate, too, drew back from an aggressive position. It rejected measures to reduce the budget for the President's Domestic Council and to require congressional approval of security improvements for the President's private homes. "Since the time of Socrates, politics has been the art of compromise," House Majority Leader Thomas P. O'Neill observed. "When Haldeman and Ehrlichman were running the White House, the President treated Congress like a stepchild. Mel Laird is over there now.

He says of himself: 'I'm a child of Congress.' Now is the time for Laird to come over here and sit down with us."

Getting the message, Laird called O'Neill about setting up a meeting. Replied O'Neill: "We can give a little, and you can give a little." If enough is given on both sides the business of the people may yet go forward.

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