September 12, 1975

HR on Sept 11 approves bill to extend oil price controls through Oct, but Sen puts off action on similar bill until next wk; Pres Ford, who previously wanted extension for only 45-days, says he would accept House bill but would not agree to modification contemplated by Sen Dems; Sen Edmund Muskie and others want bill to give Sen more time to develop an alternative to any proposal for phased decontrol that Ford may send to Cong (M)

HR Defense Appropriations Subcom cuts $7-billion from Defense budget, from requested $98-billion to $91-billion; Defense Dept is reptd distressed by size of reduction and is seeking to overturn cut before measure is taken to full Appropriations Com; newly formed HR Budget Com informed HR Appropriations subcom that defense request would have to be cut by about $8-billion to stay within over-all budgetary guidelines adopted by Cong; sources say guidance was accompanied by veiled warning by Repr Brock Adams that if defense bill were not cut by that amt, he would lead fight against measure on HR floor; some subcom members were also reptdly disturbed when they learned from staff total of reductions made by subcom as it considered individual parts of defense bill; Defense Dept and some subcom members are said to be pressing for subcom to reconsider its action before reptg bill to full com; Repr George Mahon says he plans another subcom meeting before reptg out bill; Sen John L McClellan is reptd saying that HR com is cutting so deeply into bill that Sen com will probably have to make major restorations when measure reaches Sen; McClellan, along with Sen John C Stennis, is believed setting stage for another fight over defense budget with Sen Budget Com, headed by Sen Edmund S Muskie (M)

Lynette Alice Fromme appears for arraignment on indictment accusing her of attempting to assassinate Pres Ford; she is removed from ct after telling Judge Thomas J MacBride, 'The gun is pointed, your honor, the gun is pointed--whether it goes off is up to you'; judge sets Sept 19 as date for Fromme to enter a plea; observers feel Fromme's remark was not meant to imply that MacBride is under any immediate threat but rather that unless some action is taken by his ct there will be violence from followers of Charles M Manson; Fromme's former roommates Sandra Good and Susan Kathleen Murphy comment; illus of MacBride; illus of Fromme (L)

A City Council committee last night defeated by a 7‐to‐4 vote a measure that would have barred discrimination against homosexuals in housing and employment after a hearing that lasted more than 13 hours. It was the sixth committee session on the bill in the last four years.

Agr Dept predicts '75 corn crop of 5.69-billion bu, soybean crop of 1.44-billion bu and wheat crop of 2.14-billion bu; Deputy Asst Agr Sec Richard E Bell says large US grain crop will permit more sales to USSR without causing any unusual rise in retail food prices; Agr Dept says grain prices have been rising, with corn bringing nearly $3 a bu, up from $2.70 in July, and wheat bringing $4.18 a bu, up from $3.08 in July; Agr Dept staff economist J Dawson Ahalt, Stotler Co head Howard A Stotler and Drexel Burnham & Co head Frederick G Uhlmann comment (L)