Vicente Sinco was appointed as its first Commissioner, with cabinet rank. In this connection, President Osmeña also entered into an agreement with the United States Government to send five Filipino trainees to the U.S. State Department to prepare themselves for diplomatic service. They were sent by U.S. State Department to the United States embassies in Moscow and Mexico City and consulates in Saigon and Singapore. On 5 December 1945, President Osmeña appointed Resident Commissioner Carlos P. Romulo as his representative to accept Philippine membership in the International Monetary Fund and in the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which bodies had been conceived in the Bretton Woods Agreement, in which the Philippine had also taken part. Romulo signed said membership on 27 December 1945 on behalf of the Philippines. On 30 April 1946, the United States Congress, at last, approved the Bell Act, which as early as 20 January had been reported to the Ways and Means Committee of the lower house, having been already passed by the Senate. President Osmeña and Resident Commissioner Romulo had urged the passage of this bill, with United States High Commissioner, Paul V. McNutt, exerting similar pressure. The Act gave the Philippines eight years of free trade with the United States, then twenty years during which tariffs would be upped gradually until they were in line with the rest of the American tariff policy. The law also fixed some quotas for certain products: sugar – 850,000 long tons; cordage – 6,000,000 pounds; coconut oil – 200,000 long tons; cigars – 200,000,000 pounds. This aid was coupled with that to be obtained from the recently passed Tydings Damage bill, which provided some nine hundred million dollars for payment of war damages, of which one million was earmarked to compensate for church losses. The sum of two hundred and forty million dollars was to be periodically allocated by the United States President as good will. Also, sixty million pieces of surplus property were transferred to the Philippines government. Soon after the reconstitution of the Commonwealth government in 1945, Senators Manuel Roxas, Elpidio Quirino and their allies called for an early national election to choose the president and vice president of the Philippines and members of the Congress. In December 1945, the House Insular Affairs of the United States Congress approved the joint resolution setting the date of the election on no later than 30 April 1946. Prompted by this congressional action, President Sergio Osmeña called the Philippine Congress to a three-day special session.