811.032/9–2249
Memorandum by the Assistant Secretary of State for Congressional Relations ( Gross ) to the Acting Secretary of State
This is a reminder regarding your plan to discuss with Senator Lucas the desirability of expediting action on the UN Participation Act Amendments.
The bill passed the House on July 18 (H.R. 4708). The Senate Foreign Relations Committee reported out a similar, but not identical, [Page 15] bill on June 16 (S. 2093). This bill has been passed over [on] the consent calendar three times on objections by various Senators. The last objection was by Senator Taft on August 9. Taft misunderstood a certain portion of the bill and unfortunately Senator Connally was not on the floor at the time to correct him.
Senator Lucas is holding the bill on his list to bring up on motion at some appropriate time. It is anticipated that the bill might be disposed of with one hour’s debate or less. The plan, as I understand it, is to take up S. 2093 and then to substitute H.R. 4708, thereby avoiding the necessity for a conference.
In pointing out the urgency of action on the matter, I suggest that you stress the situation in New York, the importance of action while the heavy work of the General Assembly is going on, and the desirability from our foreign policy standpoint of the Congress passing the bill during the General Assembly, particularly because of the section in the bill authorizing the President under certain conditions to furnish materiel and personnel to UN missions.1
- The bill passed the Senate on October 6 and was approved by President Truman on October 10 as Public Law 341, “An Act to Amend the United Nations Participation Act of 1945” (63 Stat. 734).↩