WHY HOUSE UPSET MCCARRAN RIDERS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-04718A000800290131-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 11, 2003
• Sequence Number: 131
• Content Type: NSPR

$se 2003/08/05 CIA-R0P78-04718A000800290131
set MeCarran 'Ricers
House
V
y Jack Steele the riders needbe given no rear I Available evidence
an expected aid utlustt'al gress Intended that the riders be
%'liea11 n used only against employees sus-
revolt ainst its epu
ilea der;~ 1 nd t?e isenfiower ad- petted of being disloyal or poor
istr4 ion, voted last week to security risks.
so-called `McCarran Veterans Unite
riders give the Secretaries of The action was unusual In
Mate a~d Commercg and the that the powerful veterans' eis
11
been General "absolute" ganizations, which have always
powerss dismiss and em oyee s been in the forefront of the
of their,ydepartments in a in- campaign for a more stringent
terests the united Stases. government security program,
The r jection by the House of united to urge the repeal bf the
the Mcarran riders, li the McCarran riders and were chiefly
Close V9te of 181 to 16L will responsible for the House vote.
almost rtaix ly toucli o?a bat- These veterans' groups-the
tie in he Senate-one 0whieh American Legion, the Veterans
may shed more light on what of Foreign Wars and the Dis-
use ha been made in 'recent abled American Veterans-joined
sears these riders fit the forces to oppose the riders on
khadow nd of the government's these two major grounds:
evblvir loyalty and security 1, The riders are no longer
progra necessary because the Adminis-
'he ouse action was unex- tration's new loyalty program
ai petted because there has never gives the heads of all govern-
before'keen a serious "attack went agencies adequate powers
against hese riders, even though to get rid of any employers held
they i-iave previously given the to be security risks.
State, ommerce and 1l 'ilitary 2. The riders might be used
Oecreta es-but rot the;Attor- by some department heads to
ney Ge eral-the thost s Weeping oust empolyees for political pat-
powers ver conferrer on execu- ronage reasons or for incompe-
tive off? als by Congress td dis- tence, and thus subvert the
44ss werpment employees. veterans' preference laws and
Empi ,yees, dismissed under destroy the civil service system.
that the McCarran riders have
been used rather sparingly for
the actual dismissal of employ-
ees, but have been used more
widely as "threats" to force em-
ployees suspected of being poor
security risks-notably homo-
sexuals-to resign.
A government employee thus)
threatened with dismissal under
the McCarran riders has little
choice but to resign. Such a
dismissal carries a clear "secur-
ity onus" which imperils the
chances of any one ;dismissed
under the riders of getting fu-
ture private employment. The
employee so threatened has no
chance of appeal and a public
protest only makes his plight
worse.
Fear and Suspicion
The House action made it evi-
dent that there are growing
fears or suspicions in Washing-,
ton that some new Cabinet of-
ficials, in their zeal to clean
house, might use the riders-or
the threat to use them-to get
rid of employees for purely po-
litical reasons or to circumvent
both civil service and veterans'
preference procedures to dismiss
ey consider incple-
ink thaElt e riders be extended]
e was & 11 0ttilC p lic y that
'he intended to rid the depart-
mkt of ,thousa of,,incompe-
tent or fc tetlo Les
Anot ier wase recent resig-
nation of a riumber-of Justice
Department employees, at least
some of whom. reportedly quit
under, the implied threat that
they would be dismissed- other-
wise und`gr unpleasant circum-
stances
Still irother ..bit. 4i` evidence
clair Weeks Secretary
of Com-
merce, planned to make con-
siderable use of the riders to
"clean up" his department, and
reports that he lmd atready used
them tp oust g _number of em-
nyees.
Official Denials
-Messrs.. Brownell and Weeks
both have vigorously denied any
intention of using the McCar-
ran riders for political dismis-
sals or to destroy or circumvent
civil service and veterans' pref-
erence laws. Republican leaders
appealed in vain to the House
to put faith in assurances that
the riders would be used only
against "subversives."
One Department of Commerce
employee ousted under the riders
brought suit in Federal District
Court here last week in an effort
to get a Supreme Court test of,
the constitutionality of the
riders. Several others have
brought complaints to this re-
porter that they had been ousted
under the riders after having
previously been cleared for loy-
alty.
The McCarran riders have an
interesting and little-known leg-
islative history.
They were first placed in a
State Department appropriation
bill seven years ago, after James
F. Byrnes, then Secretary of
State, informed the Appropri-
ations Committee that he had
no way of dismissing twenty-
nine suspected Communists who
had been transferred to the de-
partment as employees of such
war agencies as the O. W. I.
This was before any over-all
government loyalty program was
The Senate Appropriations
Committee is expected to restore
the riders to the State-Com-
merce - Justice appropriations
bill, and Sen. Pat McCarran, D.,
Nev., their original sponsor, to
lead the battle for them on the
Senate floor.
Approved For Release 2003/08/05 : CIA-RDP78-04718A000800290131-9