shall have an executive budget. On this point the report

says:

"It will doubtless be claimed by some that this is an executive budget. . . . The plan outlined does provide for an executive initiation of the budget, but the President's responsibility ends when he has prepared the budget and transmitted it to Congress. To that extent, and to that extent alone does the plan provide for an executive budget.. ..."

The committee in all frankness might have said: It is in fact to be made a Congressional measure before it will be considered by the membership; the executive proposal is for the information of the standing committees; the super-committee made up of irresponsible leaders will undertake to prepare the instrument that comes before the members for inquiry, discussion and action; what we propose is a "legislative budget." In other words, it is simply a plan to do exactly what the Smith law contemplates. It is a plan to induce the President to assume personal responsibility for the details of the estimates as well as a financial plan to be mulled over in the secrecy of the committee room, amended, changed, and buffeted about in any manner that a group of irresponsible "leaders" may see fit, and then give to these leaders a chance to play ducks and drakes with the President on the floor with no opportunity given to him or to his cabinet, openly and publicly to explain or defend the executive proposal as submitted, to meet irresponsible criticism or to challenge the independent proposals and the log-rolling measures worked out and agreed to by "chairmen of standing committees who hold their positions and exercise their powers by reason of length of service, loyalty and subservience to an oligarchy which controls an organization that exists outside

of the Government, responsible to no one, and which controls the Government through these standing committees.

Action in the Senate

In the Senate other measures were introduced and a similar select committee was finally appointed. This committee has done very little owing to the preoccupation of the Senate with discussion of the League of Nations. One proposal before the Senate deserves special mention, as bearing on the executive-budget commitments of the Republican party- Senate Bill Nos. 450 and 456, introduced by Mr. McCormick. They cover much the same ground as the Frear Bills.

The McCormick Budget Bills

Senate Bill No. 450 has for its purpose the creation of an independent audit office. By its terms, Congress for the first time in American history would have a permanent staff possessing the necessary powers and charged with the duties of currently reviewing all acts of the administration involving the receipt and expenditure of public money. Heretofore, the functions of audit and review and approval of transactions have been under the Treasury a branch of the administration responsible to the President. But Mr. McCormick would make the President responsible for leadership in planning. Therefore the critical faculty would be in Congress. And when leadership is exercised by Congress and the President exercises the critical and veto function this is consistent. The new comptroller-auditor general, and his assistants would be independent of the administration whose acts are to be reviewed and reported on; and to make the office free from partisan influence, to give it the character of political disinterestedness, the comptroller-auditor general, the assistant comptroller-auditor general, and the solicitor of the audit office are to be given the

same tenure and freedom in the exercise of discretion as judges of the Supreme Court. The bill provides that every department account shall be examined by the comptroller-auditor general on behalf of Congress and such examination shall determine whether the payments which are charged in the accounts to the sums appropriated are supported by vouchers and proofs of payment, and whether the money expended has been applied to the purpose or purposes for which such appropriation was intended to provide. That in order that such examination may, as far as possible, proceed pari passu with the cash transactions of the several disbursing offices of the executive departments, the comptroller-auditor general shall have free access at all convenient times to the books of account and other documents relating to the accounts of such departments and may require the several departments concerned to furnish him from time to time, or at regular periods, with accounts of the cash transactions of such departments respectively up to such times or periods." On the fifteenth days of January of each year the comptroller-auditor general would be required to lay before Congress the accounts of the preceding fiscal year as certified and reported on by him, and to call the attention of Congress to every case in which payments exceed or are not properly charged to an appropriation, are not supported by proof, or any other fact or information which may show irregularity; and power is also given to make interim reports when the circumstances may seem to warrant. The office is also charged with the duty of critically reviewing estimates for expenditures for the information of Congress.

Senate Bill No. 456, introduced by Mr. McCormick, by its terms would create in the Treasury Department an office to be known as the Budget Bureau, charged with the duty of collecting the data needed to enable the Secretary of the Treasury to prepare a budget for the Pres

ident to submit to Congress "in giving information of the state of the Union and to "recommend for their consideration as a measure of law the annual estimates of expenditures of the several branches of the government, and also such changes or adjustments in the revenue laws as may in his judgment be necessary to meet such expenditures"; for which purpose it would be made the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury before submitting them to the President " to revise, to consolidate, to unify, to coördinate, to reduce, diminish, or otherwise change any item or items in the annual estimates, or in any deficiency, supplemental, or other estimates of expenditures for the various branches of the government in such manner as may be necessary to effect economies and to prevent waste, extravagance, loss, duplication, and the like "an exception being made of the technical branches of the War and Navy Departments which are to be submitted to the President without change. The budget so made would be required to be in the hands of the President on or before November 15th, thereby giving to the President time to make his budget a matter of cabinet consideration before putting it in final form for submission to Congress. Thus the McCormick Bills would give to the President, under the Secretary of the Treasury, a budget bureau, and, by operation of existing law not repealed, the power to prescribe and install an effective system of administrative accounts; they would give to Congress an independent audit office for the review and report on all past acts involving money transactions, and a means of staff review and criticism of the estimates, for the information of members at the time that the budget is taken up for consideration.

The McCormick Bills are more complete in certain respects than are the Frear Bills, but they lack one essential taken up by Mr. Frear. There is nothing in the McCormick Bills, nor in any accompanying resolution,

which provides for or suggests a modification of the rules of Congress to provide for a fair, open, and adequate consideration of the budget after it has been received by Congress. The President has the constitutional right to present the budget in person or by letter. But there is

no suggestion of need for provision for explanation, criticism, or defense when it is taken up in detail for the information of members. Assuming that the majority in Congress is favorable to the administration, there is no way that criticism can be effectively organized except by the members of the opposition; and to effect this the rules must be radically changed. Assuming that the majority is hostile to the administration, there is no way to insure that the budget will be considered at all— the whole thing may be ignored and resort may be had to the same practice as now obtains.1

1 This was written during the last session of Congress. During the 2nd session of the Sixty-sixth Congress the Senate Committee began hearings, with a view to making an early report. It is understood that some of those giving testimony urged that the cabinet be given the privileges of the floor on finance and administration matters and that Senator McCormick is not averse to the proposal. If he is not, or a majority of his committee is not, then it would seem that a resolution should be drawn and made part of the report. For this is the essence of the whole thing. With a change of rules giving the privileges of the floor to members of the cabinet, there can be no other than an "executive budget " procedure. Without it a visible and responsible government is impossible.