CONGRESS: The Legislative Week Feb. 7, 1927

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The Senate—

¶Passed an amendment to the Deficiency Bill (for refunds of improperly collected taxes) prohibiting any payment of tax refund in excess of $50,000 without the O. K. of the Comptroller General. The point: to make it harder for "the rich" to get refunds, as Comptroller General McCarl is notoriously swamped with work.

¶Passed the Deficiency Bill after a political debate in which Democrats charged the Republican party with being servile to the rich. Senator Couzens, Republican foe of Secretary Mellon, charged "fraud and crookedness" in the internal revenue bureau. Democrats, ruled out of order by Vice President Dawes, called for tax reduction.

¶Confirmed Captain Waldo Evans (TIME, Jan. 31) as Governor of the Virgin Islands.

¶Approved lighthouse memorial to Christopher Columbus in Santo Domingo.

¶Passed, 79-0, a resolution recommending that the President submit all controversies with Mexico to arbitration.

The House—

¶Debated and passed appropriation bills for Departments of State, Justice, Commerce, Labor. (Bills went to the Senate.)

¶Referred to the judiciary committee a resolution offered by Congressman LaGuardia of New York demanding impeachment of Federal Judge Frank Cooper of Albany, N. Y., on the grounds of intriguing with spies to catch bootleggers whom he later tried.

¶Passed pension bill for Civil War relicts, increasing some pensions. (Bill went to the Senate).

¶Adopted conference report on White-Dill (radio) Bill. (Bill went to the Senate.)

¶Felicitated, through the mouths of Majority Leader Tilson and Minority Leader Garrett, Congressman Charles M. Stedman of North Carolina on his 86th birthday.