173. Editorial Note

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Fulbright wrote to President Eisenhower on May 25 to solicit the President’s support for his proposals for financing the Development Loan Fund. “I see little likelihood of acceptance by the Congress of these amendments,” Fulbright wrote, “unless you and your Administration give them your full, unqualified support.” For text, see Department of State Bulletin, June 22, 1959, pages 927–928.

Eisenhower was asked at a June 3 press conference about Fulbright’s suggestion that the Development Loan Fund be authorized to borrow from the Department of the Treasury to ensure its long-term funding. He replied that he opposed the Federal government’s borrowing funds except in a great emergency, but did support giving the Development Loan Fund the authority to make long-term commitments. The means for making such commitments, however, would [Page 330] have to be approved by the Appropriations Committee. For text of his comments, see Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1959, page 430.

The following day, the President stated in a letter to Fulbright that he hesitated to increase the Development Loan Fund’s appropriation, since he hoped that other nations would increase their financing for the less-developed areas as their own economies improved. Eisenhower also reiterated his opposition to empowering the Fund to borrow from the Treasury, asserting that “our common objective can best be accomplished through a long-term authorization of appropriations in reasonable amounts, together with the concurrent enactment in one appropriation bill of appropriations for each of the years for which the program is authorized—a specified appropriation for each year, each appropriation to remain available until expended.”

This would not give the Fund the flexibility of the Export-Import Bank and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, but should enable it “to put its operations on a satisfactory long-term basis.” (American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1959, pages 1682–1684)

On June 10, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee adopted an amendment to the fiscal year 1960 Mutual Security legislation authorizing the Development Loan Fund to borrow $1 billion a year from the Treasury for 5 years. The Committee reported the bill, S. 1451, with this amendment on June 22. (S. Rept. 412, Eighty-sixth Congress, First Session)