In voting the Department of State an increased (and excessive) allotment for operating expenses for the current fiscal year, the United States Senate failed to explore the actual state of affairs in that Department. Thus, by their negligence, the Senators them-selves became a party to the cover-up of bureaucratic usurpation of authority and other evils. As a result, many vital issues suffered.
So far as the release of diplomatic papers is concerned, funds were continued for the purpose. But this time, abandoning earlier precedent, the Senate made no clear demand that documentation be released unexpurgated. thus, State Department officials, who need to be reminded of their accountability to Congress and the American people, are encouraged to extend on many fronts the curtain of secrecy and official gobbledegook which conceals the workings of this free-wheeling bureaucracy.
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