Record of the 81st Congress (First Session)

Report Outline
Note
Major Legislation at 1949 Session
Machinery of Government
Government Finances
Economic Controls: Anti-Inflation and Anti-Recession Programs
Labor and Farm Legislation
Social Welfare, Civil Rights, Public Power
Foreign Relations
National Defense and Veteran Legislation
Special Focus

Note

Outstanding roll calls in the Senate and House during the 1949 session are given in full in a separate section of this Report with the title “Record Votes in the 81st Congress, First Session.” Summary tables of the separate section, starting at page 745, show the party alignments in all important roll calls.

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Major Legislation at 1949 Session

The Truman administration had notable success with its foreign measures, less success with its domestic measures, at the first session of the 81st Congress. The only Fair Deal legislation of prime importance to reach the statute books was the long-range public housing bill. A bill expanding coverage of the old-age insurance system and greatly increasing benefits was passed by the House toward the close of the session, but Senate action was postponed to 1950.

House and Senate coalitions of conservative Democrats with the Republican minorities played havoc with other measures on the Truman program, but the President uttered no blanket criticism of a Congress in which his party holds substantial majorities. From time to time he expressed satisfaction with the record being written by the Democratic Congress, and he frequently asserted his confidence that in the end the program to which he pledged himself in the 1948 campaign would be carried out in full.