THE CONGRESS: Work Done, Apr. 22, 1940

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Last week the Senate:

> Prodded by Virginia's Byrd, ordered the Budget Bureau to prove (or disprove) President Roosevelt's claim in his 1940-41 budget message that $700,000,000 can be recovered this year from such spend-lend agencies as RFC.

>Received and balked at the President's fourth (and last) proposal to reorganize and consolidate Federal bureaus. Major shifts: Weather Bureau from Agriculture Department to Commerce Department; Food & Drug Administration from Agriculture to Paul McNutt's Federal Security Agency; the hitherto independent Civil Aeronautics Authority to the Commerce Department. Major balk: against hobbling CAA and abolishing its Air Safety Board.

>Voted $23,707,520 to run Congress and its legislative establishment in fiscal 1940-41.

Last week the House:

> At the "earnest plea" of President Roosevelt, reversed itself and voted $710,000 for his National Resources Planning Board.

> Voted down (236-to-104) a bill by Judiciary Committee Chairman Hatton Sumners to abolish impeachment and trial of accused U. S. judges by House & Senate, substitute trial by Circuit Court judges.

> Approved Congressman Martin Dies's stringent procedure against Communists who have refused to answer questions, voted to cite three reticent Reds for contempt of the House.