Word: congression
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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CAREENING toward a pre-Christmas windup of its year-long session, what may be the most delinquent Congress in U.S. history last week took time out for a classic confrontation between legislative and executive branches. The issue was inflation...
...weeks ago, the President bitterly attacked Congress for its inflationary tendencies and threatened to veto the "Christmas tree" tax bill. Last week he added the massive Labor and Health, Education and Welfare appropriations bill and a relatively minor coalmine-safety bill to his possible veto list. Said Nixon in a letter to Republican congressional leaders: "I cannot at this critical point in the battle against inflation approve so heavy an increase in federal spending...
Nixon's words were wasted on the Republicans, however; the Democrats control Congress. After a Friday-morning breakfast caucus, Democratic leaders announced that they intended to ignore Nixon's warnings and might even try to override any presidential veto, though it is questionable whether they can muster the required two-thirds vote. Accordingly, they sent Nixon the mine-safety bill despite his threat. Though Congress appropriated $19.9 billion for HEW-roughly the amount Nixon requested-an additional $1.1 billion in spending is almost certain to be added later. Thus, the move was not likely to influence Nixon. Similarly...
...Congress virtually completed action on all 14 major appropriations bills, it was plain that the lawmakers' priorities differed considerably from Nixon's. In three areas-agriculture, public works and transportation-they added a total of $893 million to the funds originally sought by the President. In the other ten, they appropriated a total of $7.7 billion less than requested by Nixon...
...Reserve officials feared that if they had closed every gap in the regulations, some banks might have failed. In a banking system based on confidence, that might have touched off a financial panic, something that the Federal Reserve is sworn to prevent. Still, Board Chairman Bill Martin admitted to Congress that the "safety valve" had become "an escape hatch through which restraints are being avoided." The banks also flooded the country with new credit cards, which stimulated consumer spending and certainly did not reduce