The Program

Republican leaders of the House andSenate left their 8:30 a.m. conference with the President one day last week with smiles on their faces and a firm legislative program in their hands. The program: 1) a bill (actually passed three days earlier) giving Dwight Eisenhower the same Government reorganization powers Harry Truman had, 2) appropriations, 3) statehood for Hawaii, 4) amendment of the Taft-Hartley law, 5) limited extension of controls on defense materials and in defense areas, 6) return of tidelands to the states, 7) renewal of reciprocal trade agreements, 8) simplification of customs, 9) extension of old-age aid survivors insurance to groups now excluded, 10) continued temporary aid to schools in critical areas, 11) addition of two commissioners to the District of Columbia board.

It was not an all-inclusive list, said Senate Majority Leader Bob Taft; other items would be added later. By this week, one big item had already been added. With New York's old (77) Daniel Alden Reed calling the play, the House Ways & Means Committee (voting 21-4) approved a tax bill without even bothering to hold hearings. It was H.R.-1 Committee Chairman Reed's bill to cut individual income taxes about 10% effective July 1. But both the House and Senate leaders (with White House blessing) were prepared to roadblock H.R.-1, and any other tax-cut bill, at least until mid-May--when the budget picture will be clearer.

If Dan Reed wanted to play rough, he could get his powerful committee to set up some roadblocks of its own against the Administration's legislative program, until his tax cut is waved ahead. But Dan Reed, for nine years a football coach at Cornell, doesn't play that way. Says Reed: "I never let my football team play dirty and I don't myselt."

Last week the House also:

P: Decided, through its Rules Committee, on a go-slow policy for congressional investigations, sat tight on 79 requests for investigating powers. (The Senate has no such inhibitions, has already authorized $820,000 for a wide variety of probes.)

P: Passed a resolution of sympathy for European flood victims (see FOREIGN NEWS), agreed to consider a bill to permit entry of 25,000 Dutch flood refugees.

The Senate:

P: Confirmed Illinois' Donold B. (for Bradford) Lourie as Under Secretary of State, New York's James J. (for Jeremiah) Wadsworth as Deputy U.S. Representative to the U.N., New Jersey's H. (for Harris) Lee White as Assistant Air Force Secretary.

P: Adopted a resolution of sorrow at the death of Utah's ex-Senator Elbert Thomas, 69, high commissioner of U.S. Trust territory in the Pacific (see MILESTONES).

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