The Augusta Courier

HERMAN TALMADGE
Reports From
WASHINGTON

THE BACKBONE OF Congress is its committees. Without them legislative processes would bog down in a hopeless morass of conflicts and confusion.

While the debates and decisive votes give Congress its color, it is in the committee rooms that the laws of the nation are perfected. Through countless hours of usually-unheralded study, research, conferences and hearings, the members and staffs of the various committees put into proper form, both as to structure and substance, each of the acts considered by the lawmakers for a place on the statute books.

BECAUSE OF THE vital role which committees play in making our laws, I was particularly gratified to be assigned by the Senate Democratic Steering Committee to serve on two key ones - the Committee on Agriculture and Forestry and the Committee on Rules and Administration.

The Committee on Agriculture and Forestry is responsible for all legislative matters relating to those two fields, particularly the formulation of the nation's farm program. It considers all measures pertaining to such subjects as agricultural production and prices, livestock and meat inspection, animal diseases, seed adulteration, insects, agricultural colleges, experiment stations, agricultural research, dairying, nutrition, home economics, entomology, plant quarantine, farm credit, rural electrification, crop insurance, agricultural marketing and soil conservation.

THE RULES COMMITTEE handles all matters relating to the parliamentary rules and procedures of the Senate and federal elections, including those for President and Vice President. In addition, it is the agency which administers the various facilities of the Senate as well as those institutions, like the Smithsonian Institution and Botanic Gardens, which come under its jurisdiction.

This Committee, particularly this year, will exercise great influence over the course of many measures coming before the Senate, especially such controversial ones as the so-called civil rights proposals. For example, it will consider all of the proposed changes in Senate Rule XXII which permits unlimited debate.

BOTH OF THESE Committees will be dealing with legislation in which all Georgians have a major concern not only at this session but also at sessions to come. I feel that through serving on them I will be enabled to be a more effective representative of the citizens of Georgia and the nation.