The Chorus of Angels

THE CONGRESS

If there is one thing that the U.S. Senate holds as dear as its freedom to unlimited talk, it is the freedom to resist (with enormous success, so far) any attempt to impose on it a formal code of conduct and ethics. Last week, after wrangling for eight hours over whether they should be obliged to open their financial books to public view, the Senators once more successfully defended their cherished freedom.

The suggestion that they ought to disclose their financial condition came from the Rules Committee, which had handled the kid-glove investigation of onetime Senate Majority Secretary Bobby Baker. The recommendation proposed that Senators and Senate employees earning more than $10,000 a year disclose periodically the sources--not the amount--of outside income that exceeded 50% of their Senate pay. But when the measure reached the floor for debate, the Senate responded with a howl. Leading the chorus was Illinois Republican Everett Dirksen.

"We demean our own character when we try to adopt this kind of proposal," cried Ev. "I believe we have demeaned ourselves enough, all over one fallen angel."

Pennsylvania Democrat Joe Clark, a Rules member who has long advocated Senate reform, did not agree, and he even offered a package of amendments to stiffen the recommendation. Among other things. Clark wanted Senate wives to disclose their earnings. That proposal was defeated 62 to 25. The same fate befell an amendment offered by Delaware Republican John J. Williams, the man who kicked off the Baker investigation last October. Williams wanted Senators' income tax returns included in the disclosure plan. Aghast, his colleagues knocked that idea down 59 to 27.

Finally, by a vote of 48 to 39, the Senate adopted a Dirksen motion to recommit the whole business to the Rules Committee. That body will now consider a substitute resolution, also offered by Ev, that would create an ethics commission to study conflict-of-interest problems in every branch of the Federal Government. It was hardly likely that any angels would get shot down soon.

More constructively, the Congress last week:

-- Watched, in the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency, while TV monsters and murderers did their stuff on the screen at the opening of new hearings into video violence. Noting that programs "featuring violence" constitute 55.3% of ABC's prime evening time, 55.1% of NBC's and 26.5% of CBS's, Connecticut Democratic Senator Thomas Dodd lectured the net works' top brass: "You don't care. Anything for money. Keep at it and you'll bring on controls."

-- Increased, in the House, social security benefits for 20 million Americans and added to the social security rolls another 800,000 people, including self-employed doctors, interns, and previously ineligible aged citizens. Under the House bill, which now goes on to the Senate, maximum monthly payments for single workers would be raised from $127 to $133.40, for a husband and wife from $190.50 to $200.10, for a widow with two children from $254.10 to $281.20.

-- Passed, by a House vote of 373 to 1, a wilderness bill putting 9,100,000 acres of Government-owned lands into a wilderness-conservation system and providing for the eventual inclusion of up to 61 million acres. The measure now goes to the Senate, which has already passed a more liberal wilderness-conservation program.

--Voted, in the Senate (72-15), to limit U.S. meat imports to an average of 1959-63 imports, or about 30% less than last year's 1.7 billion Ibs. Backed by cattle-state Senators, who blame imports for low cattle prices, and opposed by the Administration on trade policy grounds, the bill now goes to the House, where the Administration will again try to block passage.

-- Approved, in the Senate, and sent to the White House, a $6.2 billion Senate-House compromise appropriations bill that provides operating funds for the Treasury, Post Office, Executive Office of the President, and several independent agencies.

-- Passed, by a Senate vote of 76 to 0, the largest of the money bills: $46.7 billion in appropriations for the Defense Department. The bill now goes to a Senate-House conference for reconciliation of differences.

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