THE CONGRESS: Ike Gets His Way

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THE CONGRESS Ike Gets His Way Once the Administration had battered down the roadblock set up by House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Dan Reed (TIME, July 6), the battle to extend the excess profits tax for six months was won. Last week Ways & Means sent an extension bill to the floor. During the five-hour debate, Virginia's Democrat Howard Smith compared the Administration to a highwayman who says: "Now give me your wallet. I know I ought not to do it . . . but I need the money, and I give you my solemn assurance ... I will never do it to you again." Smith's sally drew laughs, including a hearty peal from Dan Reed. But when the vote came, it was an overwhelming 325 to 77 for extension.

So one-sided a vote on so hard-fought an issue showed how far Congress is willing to go with Dwight Eisenhower once he clearly and firmly leads the way.

Other doings on Capitol Hill last week: ¶ A Senate-House conference weighed fatter (Senate) and leaner (House) versions of 1954 foreign-aid appropriations, agreed on a difference-splitting $5.1 billion—$3 billion less than the Administration requested. This week both houses passed the measure.

¶ The House Ways & Means Committee, moving two ways at once on foreign trade, reported out and sent to the House 1) an Administration-backed customs simplification bill, and 2) a protectionist bill, sponsored by Pennsylvania's Republican Richard Simpson, that would, among other things, impose tight quotas on oil imports and stiffer duties on lead and zinc imports.