Word: 81st
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...first session of the 81st Congress, which had begun its work in high hope ten months ago and passed through despairing depths, ended last week in wan and shaky congratulations among the Democratic majority. There was a great deal of tired, last-minute fun: barbershop ballads, a few well-placed smooches on the cheek by departing Congresswomen and gay festivities by congressional employees (see cut) whose salaries had just been raised...
Abroad. In international affairs, the 81st's record-like the 80th's−was good. Under bipartisan leadership, the Senate approved the North Atlantic Treaty,, the first peacetime alliance with European nations in U.S. history, and a $1 billion program to help arm the alliance. After a seizure of quibbling, Congress authorized a generous $5.4 billion appropriation for EGA. The hobbling "peril-point" amendment was struck off the reciprocal-trade program, and the authority extended two years. The 81st also gave U.S. defense all that the President had asked-and decided that he had not asked enough...
...fact, the 81st Congress spent more money than any other Congress in peacetime history. It whittled no significant amount off Harry Truman's budget at any point, but it added a few hundred millions here & there. It gave raises to just about everybody-the President, the Cabinet, high Administration officials, postal and civil-service employees. Its total outlay in cash, contract authority, tax refunds and debt service amounted to a whopping $51 billion...
...When the 81st Congress adjourned last week, its action on the Administration's domestic policies consisted mainly of nine and a half months of party splits, filibusters, and witchhunts. President Truman put before Congress a long-range program of social legislation, and the lawmakers responded by devoting much of their time to headline prosecutions instead of their more serious legislative duties...
...mandate of the 1948 elections seems to have been trampled underfoot along with most of Truman's proposals. The people, as the President said, have a right to expect Congress to carry out the program which they, the people, have endorsed. The next session will be the 81st's last chance...