O'Neill Predicts Kennedy Bills' Spring Passage

A liberal majority in the House Rules Committee will force President Kennedy's Civil Rights Bill onto the floor after ten days of committee hearings, according to Thomas P. O'Neill, Cambridge Congressman and Rules Committee member.

O'Neill predicted last night that opponents to the bill would try to stretch the hearings and filibuster in the Senate debate. He said that the House discharge petition, although lacking enough signatures to bypass the Rules Committee, will exert sufficient pressure to bring early passage of the bill next year.

Speaking last night to the Harvard Radcliffe Young Democratic Club, O'Neill also foresaw enactment of the Federal tax cut, Aid to Education program, and Medicare Bill before August. He predicted failure for the Mass Transit Bill, the late President's fifth major proposal.

Protests Saved Yard

O'Neill suggested that protests by Massachusetts congressmen may have saved the Boston Navy Yard from the Defense Department's recent cutback of bases. The Congressman claimed that an early version of the plan had included the Navy Yard among doomed installations, and had led to immediate protests by the Massachusetts delegation. The final plan did not condemn the Navy Yard.

Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara today denied charges that Congressional complaints had influenced his decision, and stated that more cutbacks would follow, mentioning "excess capacity in our shipyards."

JKK Infulence Lasts

O'Neill gave credit for the predicted passage of New Frontier legislation to the surviving influence of President Kennedy, saying that Lyndon Johnson's professional skill could not replace Kennedy's "winning charm." He scored Johnson's recent economy moves as shortsighted, arguing that deficit spending provides more benefit in the long run than a balanced budget.

McCormack Will Stay

Denying rumors that House Majority Leader McCormack, now second in line for the Presidency, might be replaced by a younger man, O'Neill stated that McCormack neither will nor can be squeezed out of office.

The congressman did, however, advocate changing the Presidential Succession Act to place a member of the executive branch third in the line of succession. He contended that the House leader should not be forced to divide his attention, between legislative and executive affairs.