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Rooney was a friend of mine and had always been helpful on the Appropriations Committee.

Fernandez of New Mexico went off to see someone get married and wasn't present at all, so without Rooney we would have been in great trouble.

Budge of Iowa, called “Mudge” by Senator Hill, went angry at him for being so penurious, was economy-minded. Taber, Busby and Cannon made the Senate cut their figure for the five Institutes by one million, so the final result was 59 million, just 14 million 800 thousand more than the Eisenhower budget. We had struggled all the way to get the budget raised by Truman, had it all out away, and then, and then struggled all the way back to add 14 million 800 thousand. We lost 10 million that we had gotten in the Truman budget, but if we'd not made the fight to get additional money in the Truman budget, heaven knows what would have happened. This was the largest increase in funds for medical research ever.

However, new trouble was brewing for the next year, already in the budget and in the Administration. Mrs. Hobby and Nelson Rockefeller were not interested in anything but taking the Eisenhower Administration economy line. Mrs. Hobby wrote a letter to the Budget Director which was intended to urge the Senators to keep the House figures, an incredible attempt at interference and never heard of by anyone, that the head of an agency should interfere with what the Congress wanted to vote