Senator Plans Legislation On Moynihan's Suggestion

Senator Abraham H. Ribicoff (D-Conn.) will ask the 90th Congress, when it convenes next January, to enact Daniel P. Moynihan's proposal for an "Office of Legislative Evaluation."

Ribicoff said yesterday that Moynihan's plan was one of "the most significant ideas" to come before his Senate sub-committee on government operations, which is investigating urban affairs and he instructed his staff to incorporate it into legislation.

Moynihan, who is director of the Harvard-M.I.T. Joint Center for Urban Studies, testified before the Ribicoff committee Monday. He said that there was an increasing lack of confidence in the government's efforts to deal with urban problems.

The divergence between the visible results of some programs and the glowing reports which are issued about them has produced a "crisis of confidence," he said.

Moynihan feels that an Office of Legislative Evaluation would aid in restoring public confidence in the government's attempts to deal with poverty and urban problems. Essentially, the Office would examine the value and social effects of governmental programs much in the same manner that the General Accounting Office audits them.

"I think we trifle with the intelligence of the American democracy when we assume it will never accept bad news, must indeed be fed a constant diet of good news about past programs, accompanied by forecasts of catastrophe unless new and greater ones are enacted," Moynihan told the committee.

"And I suspect there would be today a larger willingness to try out further schemes," he noted, "if it were the unfailing and unflinching practice of public authorities to acknowledge [their] difficulties."

But Moynihan insisted that such an office--if it is to be meaningful--be staffed by professional social scientists and be a free agent of Congress. "The executive is exposed to the constant temptation to release only those findings that suit its purposes;" he said, "there is no one to keep them honest.

Not everyone was quite as enthusiastic over the plan as Ribicoff was. Senator Jacob Javits (R-N.Y.) was openly skeptical about its value. Another committee member said that expanded congressional committee staffs could perform the review work just as easily and as objectively as could an independent agency.

Most of the hesitation about Moynihan's plan seems to stem from a fear that the new agency would be either too political to be worthwhile or would be too free- wheeling. One critic said that the problem of "who gets which requests answered first" would ruin the office's independence. Another said that "Congress must remain its own watchdog and that beefed-up committee staffs would be much more effective.