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Long's pungent prose helped the amendment's defeat by a narrow 43 to 42. Also defeated was Republican Javits' "two-hat" amendment, which would have forced Shriver, who leads the Peace Corps as well as O.E.O., to shed one of his two posts in the interests of efficiency. After four days of such debate, the battle-weary Senate approved the bill, with an authorization of $1.6 billion, 61 to 29; it now goes to a House-Senate conference for negotiation of dollar differences.
In other actions, the Congress:
≫ Broke, after 14 House-Senate conferences, a nine-week deadlock over the 1965 foreign aid bill. In its final form, the bill authorizes $3.36 billion for aid in fiscal 1966, only $20 million less than the Administration's request. Most of the compromising was done by the Senate conferees, who dropped their demands for a two-year aid authorization (rather than the current one-year program) and a special planning committee to review the program. Grumped the bill's archfoe, Oregon Democrat Wayne Morse: "A complete surrender to the House."
≫ Reported, out of the Senate Appropriations Committee, a Defense Department appropriation for the current year of $46.7 billion, including the $1.7 billion asked by President Johnson for the stepped-up war in South Viet Nam.
− Confirmed, by voice vote in the Senate, the nomination of former Health, Education and Welfare Secretary Anthony J. Celebrezze as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals.