recounts and contests, interference with registration or voting, and violations connected with this charter referendum.

ACCEPTANCE OR NONACCEPTANCE OF CHARTER

SEC. 1506. (a) If a majority of the registered qualified electors voting in the charter referendum vote for the charter, the charter shall be considered accepted as of the time the Board of Elections certifies the result of the charter referendum to the President of the United States, as provided in subsection (b).

(b) The Board of Elections shall, within a reasonable time, but in no event more than thirty days after the date of the charter referendum, certify the result of the charter referendum to the President of the United States and to the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the House of Representatives.

TITLE XVI-DELEGATE

DISTRICT DELEGATE

SEC. 1601. (a) Until a constitutional amendment and subsequent congressional action otherwise provide, the people of the District shall be represented in the House of Representatives of the United States by a Delegate, to be known as the "Delegate from the District of Columbia", who shall be elected as provided in this Act. The Delegate shall have a seat in the House of Representatives, with the right of debate, but not of voting. The Delegate shall be a member of the House Committee on the District of Columbia and shall possess in such committee the same powers and privileges as in the House of Representatives, and may make any motion except to reconsider. His term of office shall be for two years.

(b) No person shall hold the office of District Delegate unless he (1) is a qualified elector, (2) is at least twenty-five years old, (3) holds no other public office, and (4) is domiciled and resides in the District and during the three years next preceding his nomination (a) has been resident in and domiciled in the District and (b) has not voted in any election (other than in the District) for any candidate for public office. He shall forfeit his office upon failure to maintain the qualifications required by this subsection.

(c) (1) Subsection (a) of section 601 of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946, as amended, is hereby amended by striking our "from the Territories". (2) Clause (b) of section 1 of the Civil Service Retirement Act of May 29, 1930, as amended (70 Stat. 743), is hereby amended by striking out "from a Territory".

(3) The second paragraph under the heading "House of Representatives” in the Act of July 16, 1914 (U.S.C., 1952 edition, title 2, sec. 37), is hereby amended by striking out "from Territories".

(4) Paragraph (i) of section 302 of the Federal Corrupt Practices Act, 1925, as amended (U.S.C., 1952 edition, title 2, sec. 241), is hereby amended by inserting after "United States" the following: "and the District of Columbia".

(5) Section 591 of title 18, United States Code, 1952 edition, is hereby amended by inserting "and the District of Columbia" before the period at the end thereof. Section 594 of such title is hereby amended by inserting after "Territories and possessions" the following: "or the District of Columbia". The first paragraph of section 595 of such title is hereby amended by inserting after "from any Territory or possession" the following: "or the District of Columbia".

TITLE XVII-REFERENDUM

SEC. 1701. (a) The qualified electors (as defined in section 906) shall have power, pursuant to the procedure provided by this title, to approve or reject in a referendum any act of the District Council, or part or parts thereof, which has become law, whether or not such act is yet operative. This power shall not extend, however, to acts authorizing the issue of bonds, which shall be subject to the referendum provisions contained in section 602, or to acts continuing existing taxes or making appropriations which in the aggregate are not in excess of those for the preceding fiscal year. Within forty-five days after an act subject to this title has been enacted, a petition signed by qualified electors equal in number to at least ten per centum of the number who voted at the last preceding general election may be filed with the Secretary of the District Council request

ing that any such act or any part or parts thereof, be submitted to a vote of the qualified electors.

(b) The Board of Elections shall prescribe such regulations as may be necessary or appropriate with respect to the form, filing, examination, amendment, and certification of petitions for referenda and with respect to the conduct of any referendum held under this title.

EFFECT OF CERTIFICATION OF REFERENDUM PETITION

SEC. 1702. (a) When a referendum petition has been certified as sufficient, the act, or the one or more items, sections or parts thereof, specified in the petition shall not become operative, or further action shall be suspended if it shall have become operative, until and unless approved by the electors, as provided in this title. The filing of a referendum petition against one or more parts of an act shall not alter the operative effect of the remainder of such act.

(b) If, within thirty days after the filing of a referendum petition, the Secretary has not specified the particulars in which a petition is defective, the petition shall be deemed sufficient for the purposes of this title.

SUBMISSION TO ELECTORS

SEC. 1703. An act with respect to which a petition for a referendum has been filed and certified as sufficient shall be submitted to the qualified electors at a referendum to be held in connection with the first general election which occurs not less than thirty days nor more than one year from the date on which the Secretary files his certificate of the sufficiency of the petition. The District Council shall, if no general election is to be held within such period, provide for a special election for the purpose of conducting the referendum.

AVAILABILITY OF LIST OF QUALIFIED ELECTORS

SEC. 1704. If any organization or group requests it for the purpose of circulating descriptive matter relating to the act to be voted on at a referendum, the Board of Elections shall either permit such organization or group to copy the names and addresses of the qualified electors or furnish it with a list thereof, at a charge to be determined by the Board of Elections, not exceeding the actual cost of reproducing such list.

RESULTS OF REFERENDUM

SEC. 1705. An act which is submitted to a referendum which is not approved by a majority of the qualified electors voting thereon shall thereupon be deemed repealed. If a majority of the qualified electors voting thereon approve the act, it shall become operative on the day following the day on which the Board of Elections certifies the results of the referendum. If conflicting acts are approved by the electors at the same referendum, the one receiving the greatest number of affirmative votes shall prevail to the extent of such conflict. As used in this section, the word "Act" shall mean the complete Act, or any part or parts thereof, specified in the petition for referendum.

TITLE XVIII-TITLE OF ACT

SEC. 1801. This Act, divided into titles and sections according to table of contents, and including the declaration of congressional policy which is a part of such Act, may be cited as the "District of Columbia Charter Act".

Mr. DAVIS. The Members of the House who introduced these bills have been notified of this hearing and have been invited to appear before the subcommittee to testify. They have been set down as the first witnesses if they desire to testify. Some have indicated to the committee that they will be here for the purpose of testifying; others have indicated they will file statements.

There have been distributed to each member of the subcommittee one copy of H.R. 4400, which was 1 of the 23 identical bills, and also copies of the other 3 bills which vary, to which I have referred.

Each member of the subcommittee has also been furnished copies of the hearings in the 80th, 81st, and 82d Congresses, as well as hearings on the bill which passed the Senate recently, S. 1681.

We have listed the Members of the House who wish to testify in the order of seniority, and they will be called in that order.

The chairman of the District Committee has filed a statement which I will read at this time, from Chairman McMillan. His statement is: (Thereupon, the following statement was read by Mr. Davis:) STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN L. MCMILLAN, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA, CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Mr. MCMILLAN. Mr. Chairman, members of the subcommittee, I think the following section of the Constitution, which is identified as article I, section 8, should be inserted as a part of the record at the beginning of the hearings this morning since the only real problem confronting this committee is a constitutional problem:

To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding 10 miles square) as may, by cession of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the Government of the United States. * * *

The following is some of the history which points up the reasons for the actions taken by President Washington in designating the 10 miles square on the banks of the Potomac, known as the District of Columbia, as a Federal site to house the seat of the Federal Government and the Nation's Capital.

The basic reason originally may have been that President Washington and the other Government leaders at that time did not want to be killed.

When they were run out of Philadelphia, they ran, and we would have, too. But it will not happen now, of course, since the Federal Government has some control over the Federal site which houses the seat of our Government.

President Washington and his staff had the District of Columbia designated as the seat of the Government in 1773, long before there were any persons living in this community other than a few residents since practically all the property between the Potomac River and F Street was under water and the only means of transportation that could be used was by means of boat or horseback.

The Government has spent billions of dollars in filling in the land here on the Potomac River and practically all the property between the Potomac River and F Street was marshland and has been built up by the Federal Government.

We must not forget that the States created this Government and no one else, and the States have a right to change our Government whenever they wish and there ought not to be any feeling of hesitancy in going to the people for renewed authority if it is right. If it is right that the seat of the Government should be a territory, which I very much doubt, then it is easy to submit a constitutional amendment. The seat of the government was moved from Philadelphia since the Congress was invaded by a mob of unruly people from Pennsylvania. The seat of the Government was set up in Princeton, N.J.,

and there came a great debate as to whether the seat of the Government should be permanently seated in Philadelphia or New York. President Washington decided that the seat of the government should own a Federal site where no State or city government could possibly have any jurisdiction or conflicting interest with the Federal Government. Hence, that is the reason he designated the 10 miles square on the Potomac River, known as the District of Columbia, for the seat of the National Government.

Mr. DAVIS. That will be entered as a statement from Chairman McMillan.

The first witness, listed in order of seniority among Members who are authors of pending bills, is Congressman Emanuel Celler.

Mr. WIER. Mr. Chairman, before you proceed with the hearing, I think we are stymied here. I wondered if we could get the caucus room to hold the hearing in. I had trouble getting through the hall. [Applause from the audience.]

Mr. DAVIS. Let us have no more outbursts. This hearing will be orderly. If you are orderly you can stay. If you are not, you will be removed from the room. Let us not have any more outbursts or applause.

Mr. Wier, you are entitled to have whatever opinion you may hold about the hearings, but all of the legislation which we have had on District matters has been heard here in this room. The other subcommittees and committees dealing with District legislation have held hearings in their respective rooms. They have not been besieged by any publicity-seeking groups, and in the Senate on this same legislation the hearing was held in their regular room and ours will be held here in our regular room.

Mr. WIER. I must disagree with you, Mr. Chairman. When we had hearings on the labor reform bill we had to move three times in order to take care of people who wanted to hear, among others, John L. Lewis and others.

Mr. DAVIS. That was not legislation involving the District of Columbia. The hearings on your bill dealing with unemployment compensation and all other District matters were held in this room.

Mr. WEIR. Of course I appreciate very much the chairman's action with regard to arranging for hearings on the District unemployment compensation bill, but that is something else again.

Mr. DAVIS. The first witness is Congressman Emanuel Celler. Is he here?

Mr. MULTER. I believe he has been detained on account of the serious illness of a member of his family.

Mr. WILLIAMS. I ask unanimous consent that he may be permitted to submit a statement for insertion in the record.

Mr. DAVIS. Without objection.

The next witness is Congressman James C. Auchincloss. I am informed his wife is very ill.

Mr. MATTHEWs. Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent that he be permitted to file his statement.

Mr. DAVIS. I have told Mr. Auchincloss that if circumstances permit we will have him before the committee at a future time. He can come before the committee at any time he chooses.

The next witness is Congressman Chester E. Merrow, author of H.R. 4726. Is Mr. Merrow here?

(No response.)

Mr. DAVIS. The next witness is Congressman Alvin E. O'Konski, the author of H.R. 4400. Is he here?

(No response.)

Mr. DAVIS. The next witness is Congressman Abraham J. Multer, the author of H.R. 4630 and H.R. 8081.

Mr. MULTER. Mr. Chairman, do you want me to take a seat at the witness chair?

Mr. DAVIS. You may do as you like about it. The reporter can probably hear you better in the witness chair.

Mr. MULTER. I think it will be more convenient to all concerned if I address the committee from there.

Mr. DAVIS. You may proceed.

STATEMENT OF HON. ABRAHAM J. MULTER, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW YORK

Mr. MULTER. For the record, I am Abraham J. Multer, Representative from the 13th District of New York.

Mr. Chairman and distinguished members of the committee, I appreciate the opportunity to appear here this morning in support of home rule for the District of Columbia.

As the outset may I say that I understand and respect the views of other Members of Congress who oppose home rule for the District. At the same time I very vigorously and sincerely disagree with them.

It is my opinion that not only should the hearings go forward expeditiously, but that a bill should then be reported to the House so that the House may work its will as to whether or not the District should have home rule and if so the form that that home rule should take.

Mr. MCMILLAN. Will the gentleman yield for a question at that point?

Mr. MULTER. Surely.

Mr. MCMILLAN. I take it you do not favor the discharge rule before the Rules Committee which would not permit the House to work its will?

Mr. MULTER. I do not know as of this moment of a discharge petition, if that is what you are referring to.

Mr. MCMILLAN. I am referring to the discharge rule that provides

for a 1-hour debate on the home rule bills.

Mr. MULTER. I do not think a discharge petition has been filed yet but, most respectfully, I hope it will be filed and I hope to be one of the first to sign the petition, and I hope in short order the petition will be signed and the legislation will be brought before the House.

Mr. MCMILLAN. Perhaps I misunderstood you. I understood you to say you wanted the House to work its will, and the House cannot work its will on this legislation in the period of 1 hour.

Mr. MULTER. I understand your statement, but I do not agree with it and cannot subscribe to it. [Applause.]