THE CONGRESS: The Crack in the Constitution

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Turning to the Judicial Branch for help, more than 20 Senators, including such fiscal conservatives as Mississippi's James Eastland and John Stennis, signed a brief asking a federal court to force Nixon to spend impounded high way trust funds, as demanded by the state of Missouri. North Carolina Senator Sam Ervin, the Senate's leading constitutional expert, declared that the Constitution gives "the power of the purse exclusively to Congress," and that presidential impounding of funds is "contemptuous" of both the Congress and the Constitution.

These new demands that Congress reassert itself only dramatize how far the national legislature has fallen; those lost powers were once taken for granted as congressional prerogatives. Nor can the protests be considered merely the customary complaint of the out party over the fact that the other party controls the White House. The decline of Congress began years ago.

Yet a further challenge to congressional rights was posed by Nixon last week as he shifted the powers of key Cabinet members in order to present as almost a fait accompli a reorganization of the Executive Branch that Congress has so far declined to approve. He elevated three of his Cabinet appointees to the title of White House Counsellor, and gave them broader authority. Caspar W. Weinberger will not only be HEW Secretary but will also supervise all of the "human resources" functions now scattered in various departments. James T. Lynn, the HUD Secretary, will administer all community-development programs, and Earl Butz, Secretary of Agriculture, has a new mandate over all "natural resources" activities. Democratic Senator Abraham Ribicoff has warned that any attempt by the President to reorganize the Executive Branch by decree poses a constitutional issue.

Stable. In comparison with other national assemblies, Congress still stands out as relatively stable and more representative than most. Tennessee's Republican Senator William Brock may be right in calling it "one of the most remarkable institutions known to man," and Ervin may not be off base in terming it "the most powerful political legislative body on the face of the earth." Indeed, the individual quality of Senators and Congressmen has never been higher. Yet in relation to the presidency and within the unique American system of balanced arms of Government, Congress has been failing. It no longer effectively checks the President, as required by the Constitution.

TIME is devoting much of the observance of its 50th anniversary to a study of Congress and its decline. Already TIME has held four regional meetings at which scholars, members of Congress and civic leaders discussed the problem and possible remedies. What is really at stake, explained Editor-in-Chief Hedley Donovan, is "whether a democratic society puts some value on collective wisdom as opposed to centralized individual wisdom, and whether the Congress can make a more constructive contribution to public policy."