Record of the 82nd Congress (Second Session)

Report Outline
Major Legislative Action by 82Nd Congress
Government Finances: Taxation and Appropriations
Foreign Relations; Mutual Security; Immigration
National Defense and Veteran Legislation
Presidential Powers; Government Controls; Regulatory Measures
Social Welfare; Natural Resources; Public Development
Government Machinery and Investigations: Electoral Questions
Legislation Failing with Final Adjournment of 82nd Congress
Special Focus

Major Legislative Action by 82Nd Congress

Members assembled for the second session of the 82nd Congress in January 1952 with one principal purpose in mind—to get away from Washington before the first of the major party presidential nominations was made in July. That purpose was accomplished in a week of day, night and holiday sittings, leading up to the sine die adjournment of July 7, in which some $70 billion of appropriations were approved and scores of important bills were passed with little knowledge of what they contained.

Unless called into special session by the President to deal with a war or other emergency, the 82nd Congress will not meet again; it will be succeeded in January 1953 by the new Congress chosen in the balloting of November 4. The record on which members will stand for reelection is one of little accomplishment outside the field of foreign affairs.

At the time of the July adjournment, the steel strike had been in progress for five weeks and the war in Korea was no nearer settlement than it had been a year earlier. The President had been asked by Congress to use national emergency provisions of the Taft-Hartley Act to get the steel mills going again but he had not done so. And Congress had rejected legislation to allow him to take over the mills for government operation.