THE CONGRESS: Presto Change

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Last week the U.S. Senate showed rare skill at sleight of hand. In one and the same motion, it passed the Hawaiian-Alaskan statehood bill by an impressive 57-to-28 vote and killed the chances of both territories for this year. Reason: the bill, as many of the Senators were fully aware, cannot get through the House.

Already passed by the House was a measure for Hawaiian—and only Hawaiian—statehood. This was the bill that the Senate finally passed last week, a year behind schedule. But the Senate had made a change in the bill: it had amended it to include statehood for Alaska. To reconcile the two versions, a House-Senate conference is necessary; it will probably not be held.

The House can appoint conferees only by 1) unanimous consent, which Southern Representatives will be happy to refuse because they don't like the idea of statehood for multiracial Hawaii, or 2) a go-ahead from its legislative traffic cop, the Rules Committee, controlled by the G.O.P. leadership, which is notably lukewarm toward Alaskan statehood.

Speaker Joe Martin made no secret of Republican plans to let the bill die quietly. Said Martin: "We have a pretty busy program and can't waste time with something that can't pass." Asked if there was any pressure to send the bill to conference, Martin replied: "No, but I know of plenty who'll see it does not go to conference."

One slight chance remained: the possibility of an all-out effort by President Eisenhower to get the bill through Congress. And Dwight Eisenhower is already on the record against Alaskan statehood at this time.

Last week the Congress also: ¶ Advanced, by a party-line 7-to-6 vote in the Senate Labor Committee, a Taft-Hartley revision bill along the lines of President Eisenhower's recommendations (TIME, Jan. 18). Missing from the bill: an Eisenhower proposal for a secret strike ballot under Government auspices.

¶ Scheduled for debate this week in the House, a bill permitting court use of wiretap evidence in cases involving national defense and security, e.g., crimes of treason, sabotage, espionage and sedition. The evidence would be admissible only when the wiretap had been authorized in writing by the Attorney General. The House Judiciary Committee voted for the bill, 19 to 9.

¶ Killed in the House, by a 21140-176 count, President Eisennower's four-year, 140,000-unit public housing program. The House also refused to grant the President authority to raise interest rates for new G.I. home loans and other Government-insured mortgages. With these modifications, the House passed and sent to the Senate what was left of the Administration's omnibus housing bill.

¶ Reduced by $59 million, in the House Appropriations Committee, the Interior Department's budget request, thus brought it down to $363,360,989.

¶ Jumped, in the House, when an amateur photographer set off a flashbulb in the gallery — in the same spot where Puer to Rican terrorists stood and fired on Congressmen just a month before.