The Congress: Last Gasps

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Not since Little Eva had there been quite such a deathbed scene—and at week's end the first session of the 88th Congress was still in the protracted process of breathing its last.

Still holding things up was the foreign aid bill. A House-Senate conference committee had agreed on a $3 billion appropriation, $1.9 billion less than the Kennedy Administration originally requested. Now at issue was a House amendment prohibiting the Export-Import Bank of Washington from guaranteeing loans in commercial transactions with Communist nations—such as the much-publicized wheat deal with Russia.

The conference committee came up with a compromise under which the President would have authority to waive the loan restriction if he deemed it "in the national interest." But House Republicans, under the leadership of Indiana's Charlie Halleck, were dead set against the compromise and, aided by the absence of scores of Democrats who had taken off for Christmas, they defeated it by a vote of 141 to 136.

"Too Late." Within two hours of the vote President Johnson was on the telephone, urging House leaders to try again. At his request the conference committee reworded its compromise, started it back toward the House floor.

But first it had to go through the Rules Committee—which turned up two shy of a quorum. Halleck offered to produce two Republicans, but only if the Democratic leadership would agree to accept the next floor vote as final and let the House adjourn.

Speaker John McCormack hesitated, insisting that he had to consult the President first. That took three hours—and when he finally told Halleck that the deal had been approved, Halleck snapped: "You are too late. It cannot be done." During the interval, it seemed, one of Halleck's Rules Committee Republicans had taken off for home.

The Democrats were outraged at what they considered to be Halleck's betrayal. Majority Leader Carl Albert charged that the G.O.P. was staging a sitdown strike. A White House aide, with more ardor than accuracy, said the whole affair was "an attempt by the Midwest isolationist wing of the Republican Party, headed by Mr. Halleck, to seize control of the party and impose its will on the foreign policy of the United States." President Johnson delayed his Christmas trip back to Texas, wrote in a memorandum to Speaker McCormack: "It is not difficult to imagine the reaction of the rest of the world if the first disagreement between Congress and the new President results in a restriction upon the powers of the President."

Flat Refusal. Meanwhile, a frantic effort was made to get Rules Committee Democrats back to Washington. Among those absent was Missouri Liberal Rich ard Boiling, 47, who was off on one of the smaller, more remote Virgin Islands. The White House contacted the Governor of the Virgin Islands, who sent a plane after Boiling. But Boiling, enjoying his Christmas in the sun, refused to leave. The plane took off, radioed Boiling's words back to St. Thomas, and was ordered to land and try again. Boiling remained adamant.