Committee Curbing

Gathering dust in some Capitol Hill pigeon hole is a bill that could have prevented the Harry Dexter white fiasco, and saved the present Administration much embarrassment. Written by New York Representative Jacob Javitts, the bill would establish uniform rules for conducting investigations.

Naturally most Congressional committees have already drawn up regulations for their own conduct, but recent abuses and want of good sense and taste have shown the need for uniform authorized rules by Congress as a whole. Senate and House investigations presumably point toward some specific legislation, but with at leas three committee chairmen aiming at, and producing little but headlines, blanket restrictions are overdue.

The most important provision of Javitt's bill calls for a decision by a committee majority on what it shall investigate, and a clear statement of the inquiry's purpose. Under this rule, publicity-seeking chairmen would be curbed by more temperate colleagues who are better able to discriminate between the country's and the committee's best interests.

Once the committee has stated its purpose, it cannot then, according to Javitt's proposals, tack in a fresh direction with each gust of public interest. The testimony of all witnesses called by the committees must be "germane to the subject so stated." This would end the race between committees to subpoena a person suddenly in the news.

The Javitt bill would protect those witnesses whom the committees do summon, for accusations based on secret testimony cannot be rebutted, as President Pusey pointed out in his replay to McCarty's charges against Wendell Furry. Under the reform bill no committee member could release any sort of report or statement about the proceedings of closed sessions without majority permission. If such permission is given, the committee must furnish the witness with a stenographic copy of the testimony at the executive session.

Committees are indispensable to such an unwieldy group as Congress, but they must always be subject to the wishes of the parent group. Establishment of majority will over chairmen's whims will go far toward bringing many committees back to the point at which their methods, as well as aims, are in tune with the will of Congress.