Other Work Done

"At this point the member just about abandons all hope of.coming out of the session with complete mental balance," North Dakota Congressman Usher Burdick wrote to his constituents about the frantic last days. "People who want this or that bill swarm the Capitol in person or flood the Congressmen with letters and telegrams, some even threatening members with political extinction unless ..." Amid the tumult and turmoil the Congress nevertheless got plenty of action (or inaction) on "this or that bill."

Last week the House: P: Killed (203-191) a Senate-approved, Democratic-sponsored bill to authorize federal construction of nuclear reactors in a new $400 million public-power project, thereby heeding the Administration's pri mary reliance upon private enterprise in this field.

P: Killed, 194 (139 Republicans, 55 Dem ocrats) to 179 (126 Republicans. 53 Dem ocrats), the Administration-sponsored, Senate-approved $156 million Frying Pan-Arkansas project designed to bring Frying Pan Creek water to drought-stricken southeastern Colorado (in the Arkansas River valley) by tunnel through the Con tinental Divide.

P: Voted unanimously to investigate the collision between the liners Andrea Doria and Stockholm.

The Senate: P: Pigeonholed in a Post Office subcom mittee a House-approved bill to increase postal rates by some $430 million a year, e.g., from 3-c- to 4-c- per ounce for domestic first-class mail, 6-c- to 7-c- per ounce for domestic air mail, sizable in creases for second-class mail.

P: Approved and sent to the White House a $378 million extension of federal aid for two years to "federally impacted areas," where schools are crowded because of nearby Government installations. P: Passed and sent to the President a bill requiring that anyone trained as a spy by a foreign government or political party must register with the Justice Department. P: Passed and sent to the White House a House-approved bill repealing the restriction that the FBI may not enter kidnaping cases until seven days have elapsed, granting authority for FBI participation after 24 hours.

P: Eulogized, for two hours, one of its favorite members: Colorado's Eugene Millikin, who, pain-racked with rheumatoid arthritis, announced that he would not run for reelection. Quick-witted and penetrating despite the physical ailments that confine him to a wheelchair, Gene Millikin, 65, made his decision after meeting with two Colorado backers who gently assured him that his waning strength would certainly impede the predictably close senatorial race in Colorado.

Both houses, working in smooth conjunction :

P: Passed and sent to the White House a bill eliminating the 10% amusement tax on admission tickets costing 90-c- or less. P: Passed and sent to the White House a bill for constructing a $37 million merchant ship powered by atomic energy, a favorite dreamboat of President Eisenhower's, designed to demonstrate the peaceful uses of atomic energy. P: Passed and sent to the White House a bill providing pay raises from $22,500 to $25,000 a year for Cabinet officers, from $14,800 to $16,000 for top-bracket civil servants, and miscellaneous raises ranging up to $5,000 for 600 top government officials--all rounded out by bigger retirement benefits for 2,000,000 federal employees.

P: Invited a second presidential veto by sending to the President a second version of a $2 billion military construction bill without removing the feature the President did not like--congressional authority to pass on military housing projects. CJ Passed and sent to the White House a compromise public-housing bill providing for 70,000 federally financed low-rent housing units within the next two years.

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