ACCEPTANCE OF VOLUNTARY SERVICES 283 



OSRD's operations could be met in such a way as not to disrupt OSRD 

 scientific operations. 



With the approval of the Bureau of the Budget and the Attorney General, 

 H.R. 4446 was introduced in the House of Representatives on March 21, 

 1944, to exempt certain officers and employees within the OSRD from Sec- 

 tions 109 and 113 of the Criminal Code. The bill was in line with similar 

 legislation which had been enacted on behalf of persons serving on Selective 

 Service Boards, Appeal Boards and Advisory Boards (Public Law 47, 77th 

 Congress) and of persons serving as members of Alien Enemy Hearing 

 Boards (Public Law 376, 77th Congress) as well as with bills which had 

 been introduced to exempt members of the War Price and Rationing Boards 

 in the Office of Price Administration from the provisions of Sections 109 

 and 113 except in cases involving representation before OPA itself. H.R. 

 4446 passed the House of Representatives without objections on June 23, 

 1944. Shortly thereafter. Congress enacted the Contract Settlement Act of 

 1944 (Public Law 395, 78th Congress) which in its Section 19(e) repeated 

 certain of the provisions from the operation of which H.R. 4446 was designed 

 to exempt OSRD. Accordingly, H.R. 4446 was amended to extend the ex- 

 emptions to Section 19(e) of the Contract Settlement Act of 1944 and the 

 amended bill was reported favorably by the Senate Judiciary Committee on 

 December 5, 1944. The report came during the closing days of the session 

 at a time when unanimous consent was necessary for the passage of any 

 bill through the Senate. When the bill was reached on the Senate calendar, 

 objection to consideration of it was made by one Senator who as a member 

 of the Judiciary Committee had not objected to its favorable report by that 

 Committee. Accordingly the bill failed of passage. 



With the convening of the new session of Congress, a new bill, H.R. 1524, 

 was introduced in the House of Representatives on January 16, 1945. This 

 bill had a somewhat similar fate to that of H.R. 4446. It passed the House 

 of Representatives but in the Senate was held up by an objection of the same 

 Senator. The exact basis of his objection was not defined and consequently 

 the objection could not be met. With the successful outcome of the war, all 

 possibility of getting favorable action on the bill vanished. 



Had it been known when the Attorney General issued his opinion in the 

 OPA case that it would not be possible for OSRD to obtain legislation pro- 

 tecting its woe personnel from the charge of technical violation of the 

 Criminal Code, the effect might have been serious. As it was, there was 

 up to the very last reason to believe that the exemptions would be forthcom- 

 ing. The House twice passed the bill providing the exemptions and there 

 was a favorable report without dissent from the Senate Judiciary Committee. 

 Under these circumstances for any substantial number of OSRD appointees 

 to resign and by so doing seriously retard research and development essen- 

 tial to the war effort by completely disrupting the administrative machinery 



