THE CONGRESS: 92% of the Loaf

The Administration's foreign-aid bill got through the Senate last week, but not without a bruise.

Crying economy, some Republicans had hacked away at the program's main trunk —funds for ECA. Most Senators agreed with ECAdministrator Paul Hoffman that the foreign aid was not charity but self-protection; the difficulty was that Europe, being in no one's constituency, had to be debated on its own merits alone. Missouri's James Kem wanted to slash off $1 billion. Ohio's Taft offered an amendment to knock off $500 million, about 16½% of the total. He would favor cutting "every reducible appropriation," foreign & domestic, Taft declared, by just about that percent.*"If we hope to save $3 billion this year towards balancing the budget," he argued, "no smaller amount will suffice."

From the Democratic side of the aisle, Texas' Tom Connally gibed: "[Taft] sits in his office with one eye on the map of Ohio and the other on his pocket." Taft's amendment lost on a tie vote. But an amendment by New Hampshire's Styles Bridges for a $250 million slash, just like the one already passed by the House, was pushed through. Final total: $3.1 billion, of which about 90% goes to Europe under ECA, most of the rest to South Korea and other non-Communist areas in Asia.

Tucked in with EGA, the President's Point Four program, to give technical aid to backward areas and encourage U.S. private investments abroad, squeaked through (37-36) to become duly authorized for the first time by Congress. The Senate voted the $45 million Harry Truman asked for; since the House authorized only $25 million, the difference will have to be fought out in conference.