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Ford Newsletter, August-October 1972
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Ford Newsletter, August-October 1972
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Gerald R. Ford Congressional Papers
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WASHINGTON REMEN
Report
Serving
From Your Congressman
Michigan's Fifth District
JERRY FORD
PRINTED At GOVERNMENT EXPENSE:
August 14, 1972
HOUSE APPROVES H.E.W. SPENDING BILL
The House last week passed a bloated $30.5 billion
spending bill for the departments of Labor and
Health, Education and Welfare (HEW)
KENTCO
BOLON
City
A so-called compromise between earlier-approved
SPARTA
City
House and Senate bills, the Labor-H.E.W. spending
COURT
LAND
BLOOMER
measure then went to the Senate.
Sparts
Marklard
IONIA CO.
Mapie
CANNON
GRATTAN
This loaded appropriation bill calls for spend-
OFISCO
ROMALD
LEMANON
ing $1.7 billion more than President Nixon requested.
GRAND
RAPIDS
Grand
5TH DISTRICT
East
Lynns
Rapidal
Besides that, the bill contains the potential for a
Lawell
BEALIN
PORT-
far greater cost overrun because it includes an
LOWELL
open-ended Social Services program. The President
asked $2.3 billion for social services. But State
requests already total nearly $5 billion and could
o
go to $6 billion.
BARRY
THORN
APPLE
Rep. Robert H. Michel of Illinois, senior Republican
on the Labor-H.E.W. appropriations subcommittee,
termed the bill "a prime candidate for a Presidential
veto.'
Michel pointed out that the bill was $958 million or 23 per cent over the President's budget
on health items and $791 million or 23.6 per cent over the budget for education.
As Michel noted, there would have been some justification for the boosts in health and edu-
cation spending if the Administration had been niggardly in such outlays in recent years, but
this just doesn't happen to be true.
The President's request for fiscal 1973 for the Health Services and Mental Health Administra-
tion was 52 per cent over the comparable 1969 appropriation. For the National Institutes of
Health, it was 56 per cent more.
Preventive health services have been more than doubled since 1969, and health services plan-
ning and delivery have been increased some 50 per cent.
The National Cancer Institue budget has been increased more than 100 per cent, and the Heart
and Lung Institute some 40 per cent.
The President's budget request for the education items in the H.E.W. money bill was 25 per
cent over the comparable 1969 level, and this does not include higher education or a request
this year for a billion dollar program of emergency school assistance for elementary and second-
ary education.
Elementary and Secondary Education Act funds have grown by about one-third since 1969.
Vocational and adult education funds have nearly doubled, and the appropriation for education
for the handicapped has increased nearly 50 per cent.
Programs carried under the heading, "Educational Renewal," have grown more than 100 per cent
since 1969.
So there was no justification for the huge increases tacked on the H.E.W. spending bill in
the House and the Senate. The compromise $30.5 billion bill passed the House 240 to 167. I
voted against it.
LIBRARY
(over)
AGRICULTURE-ENVIRONMENTAL AND CONSUMER PROTECTION OUTLAYS O.K.'D
The same day the Labor-H.E.W. money bill was approved, the House passed 317 to 80 the final
version of the Agriculture-Environmental and Consumer Protection Appropriation Bill for fiscal
1973. The bill provides $13,434,032,700.
The Ag-Environmental bill includes funds to keep the farmer producing, to see that he has
an adequate return for his high quality production, and to enable the consumer to spend only
16 per cent of his average income for food. The bill includes $2,371,014,000 for the
Environmental Protection Agency. I voted for the bill, which passed 317 to 80.
HEARINGS BEGIN ON MY NON-PUBLIC SCHOOL TAX CREDIT BILL
Hearings were to begin August 14 before the House Ways and Means Committee on my bill, and
others, to aid non-public schools through tax credits for parents paying tuition.
Witnesses this week were to include Treasury Secretary George P. Schultz, HEW Secretary
Elliot L. Richardson, and Budget Director Caspar W. Weinberger. The hearings are to resume after
Labor Day.
My bill would provide a tax credit of 50 per cent for tuition, up to a maximum of $400 per
child, with B. maximum of $800 in tax credits per family.
House Ways and Means Chairman Wilbur Mills has introduced a similar bill.
The President has repeatedly endorsed aid for parochial and other non-public schools.
HOUSE ACTION DUE ON ANTI-BUSING BILL
Unless there is a change in scheduling, the House this Thursday will take up the President's
bill to lay down school desegregation guidelines for the courts, with busing allowable only as a
last resort.
I strongly support this legislation and have been pushing it for months. I have worked with
members of the House Education and Labor Committee and the House Rules Committee to clear the
bill for House floor action. The bill should pass the House without difficulty.
Passage of the busing guidelines bill, alone, will not satisfy me. I also want Congressional
approval of a moratorium on court-ordered
busing and a Constitutional amendment which
would ban all mandatory busing to achieve
racial balance.
HOUSE BACKS PRESIDENT
The House last Thursday expressed its contin-
ued support for President Nixon's efforts to
end the Vietnam War through Vietnamization
and negotiation.
The House rejected, 228 to 178, a so-called
end-the-war section in a $2.1 billion foreign
military aid bill. The House deleted the
section from the bill and then passed the
measure 221 to 172. I voted to knock the
section from the bill and then voted for the
bill. I don't believe we should pull the
rug out from under the President as he seeks
to end the war.
GOP PUSHES FOR SPENDING LIMIT
Last Thursday I reintroduced, with 129 Repub-
lican cosponsors, a bill which would set a
AUGUST INTERN carl Aardsma 06 Grand
$250 billion limit on Federal spending in
Rapids is interning in my Washington office dur-
fiscal 1973. We must curb spending to avoid
ing August. He will be a sophomore at Grand
a tax increase in future years. The Congress
Rapids Bible College this fall.
has already exceeded the President's budget
by $5 billion and threatens to do more fiscal
damage.
REVIEW
Report
Serving
From Your Congressman
Michigan's Fifth District
JERRY FORD
August 21, 1972
HOUSE APPROVES STRATEGIC WEAPONS LIMIT AGREEMENT
The House last Friday authorized President Nixon to accept the agreement he negotiated in
Moscow last May 26 limiting the deployment of U.S. and Soviet offensive strategic weapons.
The agreement, aimed at curbing the nuclear arms race, caps 2½ years of negotiations
between the United States and the Soviet Union. The resolution giving the House's approval
to the interim agreement was cosponsored by House Majority Leader Hale Boggs, D-La., and me.
Acting for the United States, the President last May signed SALT accords which consisted of
the five-year interim agreement on offensive weapons approved last week by the House and a
treaty limiting antiballistic missile systems (ABMs). There is also a protocol to the interim
agreement and a number of statements of "interpretation" by the U.S. and the Soviets.
Only the Senate acts on the ABM treaty. But the agreement on offensive weapons must be
approved by both the House and Senate.
The interim agreement and protocol limit U.S. and Soviet ICBMs, ballistic missile submar-
ines and submarine-launched ballistic missiles to the number deployed and under construction on
July 1, 1972. The numbers are 1,054 for the United States and 1,618 for the Soviet Union.
There is no limitation on strategic bombers.
Launchers for "light" ICBMs and "older" ICBMs may not be replaced by "heavy" ICBMs. How-
ever, both sides may replace their ICBMs with more modern ones, including the multiple indepen-
dent reentry vehicles known as MIRVs. But the modernization may not increase the launcher size
by more than 10 to 15 per cent.
The agreement also limits modern nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines and SLBM
launchers. The U.S. can reach a level of 710 SLBM launchers on 44 submarines while the Soviet
Union's ceiling is 950 modern SLBM launchers on all submarines and no more than 62 modern
nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines.
The ABM Treaty continues the current situation of mutual deterrence by limiting ABM systems
to two sites-one in defense of both sides' national capital and the other in defense of an
ICBM base. This places both sides in the position of not having a substantial defense against
major missile attacks, so that neither would be in a position to engage in a preemptive first
strike without fear of massive retaliation.
IN BEST INTERESTS OF U.S.
The following table estimates the projected strategic balance
in mid-1977, at the expiration of the new 5-year agreement on offen-
sive weapons, based on administration statements about present U.S.
There is no question that the interim
planning and on observed deployment rates for Soviet systems:
SALT agreement is in the best interests
of the United States.
Without Moscow
Under Moscow
Agreement
Agreement
The momentum of the Soviet arms buildup
U.S.S.R.
U.S.
U.S.S.R.
U.S.
would have carried the Soviet forces
Land-based Missiles
1,900
1,054
1,330
1,000
well beyond the level planned for our
Sea-based Missiles
1,200
656
950
710
forces by the mid or late 1970s.
Heavy Bombers
140
500
140
500
The absence of SALT accords would have
Deployed Strategic Warheads
3,400
11,000
2,600
11,000
given new vigor to the arms race.
Equivalent Megatonnage
5,500
4,550
4,000
4,450
We would have been forced to spend
Wespons characteristics based on the International Institute for Strategic Studies' "The Mill-
tary Balance, 1971-1972."
billions more on armaments without
achieving any greater security.
(over)
PRESIDENT PREVAILS ON HOLD-DOWN IN SPENDING
The House last Wednesday night
2.8
sustained the President's veto of
2,74
276
2,72
the $30.5 billion Labor and Health-
2,70
2.7
Education-Welfare Departments ap-
266
265
propriation bill for fiscal 1973.
2.6
The vote was 203 to 171 in favor of
millions
overriding the veto--and so it fell
2.5
short of the required two-thirds
majority.
24
In this bill Congress had exceeded
2.3
the President's budget requests by
$1.8 billion and had included an
open-ended item for social services
22
to public assistance recipients
which could have added $3.5 billion
in cost overruns.
To make the social services item
JAN-JULY
open-ended was unconscionable.
1967
1968
1969
1970
1971
1972
There was also no excuse for fat-
NUMBER OF FEDERAL EMPLOYEES
tening the health and education
items in the bill by $1.7 billion.
There would have been some justification for beefing up the health and education items if
the Administration had been niggardly in this regard. But as I pointed out in great detail in
my last newsletter, the Administration has substantially increased its budget requests for
health and education every year that it has been in office.
In his veto message, the President emphasized how important it is to hold down Federal
spending at this time when we have made gains in the fight against inflation and have made pro-
gress in increasing worker purchasing power. We must avoid a threatened tax increase.
In that connection, the Administration has been endeavoring to reduce Federal payrolls and
this effort has produced results. Please note the chart above. It shows that the number of
Federal civilian employees rose to 2.7 million in 1967 at the time of the Johnson Administrations
Great Society phase and heavy Vietnam involvement. During the Nixon Administration, the number
of Federal civilian personnel has receded to its present level of about 2.6 million.
HOUSE VOTES LAST-RESORT LIMIT ON BUSING
After being in session for 13 hours, the House early Friday morning voted to eliminate
cross-town busing to achieve racial balance and instructed the courts to employ a list of
alternative methods of desegregating a school before they could order any kind of racial busing.
I strongly supported this anti-busing measure, which passed the House 282 to 102. However,
as I have previously stated, I will not be satisfied until we also have a Constitutional
Admendment which bans forced busing altogether.
Under the bill passed by the House, a court ordering racial busing as a last resort to
desegregate a school could not order students bused beyond the second nearest school to their
homes. This applies to all students, not only to grade school pupils, under terms of an amend-
ment which I was pleased to support. The amendment passed 178 to 88.
I also backed an amendment which would allow schools now under court busing orders to reopen
their cases and make the courts comply with the new restrictions set forth in the legislation
approved by the House last Friday.
CHINA REPORT GIVEN TO THE HOUSE
House Majority Leader Hale Boggs and I reported to the House last Tuesday on our recent trip
to the People's Republic of China. I told the House how Chinese intellectuals and professional
people work for a time in the fields and factories and suggested this might be a good practice in
America. I also observed that the Communist Chinese, with their tremendous dedication and disci-
pline, could become a threat to the world under the wrong leadership. But I added that I believe
that "our young people today, even with the growing permissiveness, so long as they are willing
to sacrifice for individuality and freedom, can meet the challenge."
# # #
WASHINGTON REMEN
Report
Serving
From Your Congressman
Michigan's Fifth District
JERRY FORD
PRINTED EXPENSE:
September 18, 1972
HOUSE CUTS DEFENSE BILL BY $4.3 BILLION
The House late last week carefully pruned $4.3 billion from the Department of Defense
appropriation request for fiscal 1973.
The bill as approved by the House provides the Defense Department with $74.6 billion--about
$1.4 billion more than was available in the last fiscal year. Inflation is primarily responsi-
ble for the increase in defense costs.
The reductions made by the House in the Defense Department's pending requests did not cut
into our defense muscle. As House Appropriations Committee chairman George Mahon, D-Tex.,
explained to the House, the savings were made by eliminating "obsolete or marginal programs."
Mahon cited "a more cautious approach to production of military hardware where substantial
development and testing had not been completed." Mahon also pointed to shortfalls in military
personnel strengths.
NO CUT IN SOUTHEAST ASIA FUNDS
The bill provides $2.5 billion for support of the South Vietnamese and other free world
forces in Southeast Asia during this fiscal year.
The House approved the full amount of the Southeast Asia request. This gives the President
the power to protect remaining U.S. forces in Vietnam as he continues America's withdrawal from
the Vietnam War and seeks to end U.S. involvement there in an honorable way.
FULL SUPPORT FOR NEW WEAPONS PROJECTS
While approving reductions recommended by the Appropriations Committee the House gave full
support and funding to the Administration's key new weapons projects--the Navy Trident missile-
firing submarine and the Air Force B-1 bomber. The B-1 will replace the over-worked and aging
B-52.
In carrying out cuts recommended by the Committee the House chopped out $132 million from
the request for the S-3A submarine-hunting airplane, $190 million from a Pentagon request to buy
three Boeing 747 Jumbo Jets equipped as emergency airborne command posts for the President and
his staff, $101 million from a $421 million
request for the Air Force's new F-15 fighter,
SPENDABLE WEEKLY EARNINGS UP SHARPLY AFTER
LONG STAGNATION IN LATE 60's
and $35 million from the military budgets for
( 1967 DOLLARS)
officer promotions.
105
105
While working on the defense appropriation bill,
the House rejected a so-called "end-the-war
100
100
amendment" 208 to 160. I voted against the
96 *
amendment.
95
95
92
Chairman Mahon declared that every dollar in the
91
91
91
91
91
90
defense budget as approved by the House is fully
90
90
justified. He cautioned against any move toward
unilateral disarmament.
85
85
Z
Z
Mahon asserted, "We must maintain a strong
0
0
national defense. It would be utter folly to
1965
1966
1967
1968
1969
1970
1971
1972
make significant unilateral reductions in our
Source: Total private non-agricultural Industries series
*
June Figure
defense posture.
(more)
HOUSE ADOPTS FINAL MILITARY PROCUREMENT AUTHORIZATION
Earlier in the week the House approved the final version of legislation authorizing
appropriations for military weapons, armed forces research and development, construction of the
Safeguard anti-ballistic missile system at Grand Forks, N.D., and the reserve components of the
armed forces.
The bill, as finally agreed to, totalled $20.9 billion. This was $2.3 billion less than
the amount asked by the Defense Department.
At the insistence of the House, a so-called "end-the-war amendment" which had been included
in the Senate military procurement bill was dropped from the final version of the legislation.
There already is on the books a law which reflects the intent of Congress that the U.S. involve-
ment in Indochina be ended at the earliest practicable date.
CHILD NUTRITION LEGISLATION WRAPPED UP
The House last week took final action on amendments to the National School Lunch Act, assur-
ing adequate funds to feed children in areas where poor economic conditions exist and in which
there are high concentrations of working mothers.
The thrust of the legislation is to eliminate administrative and funding problems this
school year in the school lunch program, the school breakfast program, and the nonschool assis-
tance program.
The bill would:
Extend the nonschool food assistance program and the school breakfast program through
June 30, 1975 and increase the annual authorization to "such sums as are necessary."
Require that free lunches be served to every child whose family income does not exceed
a guideline fixed by the State educational agency--this guideline to be not less than
100 per cent nor more than 125 per cent of the poverty line for each size of family.
Require that reduced price lunches be served--when the school so elects--to every child
within guidelines fixed by the State educational agency at not more than 150 per cent
of the applicable poverty line.
Provide for advance payments for the school lunch program as well as for the school
breakfast program.
Authorize a special two-year pilot program making supplemental foods available to pregnant
and lactating women and to infants who are at nutritional risk.
SERVICE ACADEMY DEADLINE
The deadline is Sept. 25 for Fifth Congres-
sional District young men interested in
attending the service academies.
Applications must be filed by that date for
the six appointments which are available to
me. One is with the U.S. Military Academy
at West Point. Another is with the U.S.
Naval Academy at Annapolis. And four are
with the U.S. Air Force Academy at Colorado
Springs.
Applicants must be high school seniors who
are U.S. citizens, under 22 years of age,
never married, and able to pass the medical,
physical and scholastic requirements of the
respective academies.
Appointments are also available to the Merchant
Marine and Coast Guard Academies. I may nomi-
nate up to 10 candidates for the Merchant
Marine Academy at Kings Point, N.Y., to compete
statewide for 12 available scholarships. The
Coast Guard makes its own selection of cadets
to attend the Academy at New London, Conn.,
from a nationwide competition.
Scholarships at the academies lead to a
bachelor's degree in science and a commission
ONE OF OUR fine summer interns was Miss
in one of the Services.
Donna Coulter of Grand Rapids. Donna was
graduated last June from Michigan State
Applications may be obtained through my
University, with a major in education.
Grand Rapids and Washington offices.
WASHINGTON
Report
Serving
From Your Congressman
Michigan's Fifth District
JERRY FORD
October 2, 1972
ADJOURNMENT IN SIGHT
Congress is heading into the home stretch toward adjournment, with the hoped-for finish
line pegged at Oct. 14.
A spurt of activity is expected in both houses of Congress. In the House of Representa-
tives, quite a bit of cleanup work has taken place, and final action on a number of important
bills is due momentarily.
HOPE FOR TAX HOLD-DOWN
One of the major pieces of legislation the House is expected to wrap up this week is the
monumental Federal revenue-sharing bill, which will make $30.1 billion in Federal funds avail-
able to States and local units of government over a five-year period. One consequence of
Federal revenue-sharing--a result I fervently hope for--may be a hold-down in State and local
taxes. This would be a much-deserved break for the taxpayer.
The revenue-sharing legislation to be acted on this week is a compromise between earlier-
approved House and Senate bills--a so-called conference report. Michigan's portion of revenue-
sharing funds under the conference agreement will be $221.8 million. Approximately $74 million
of this will go to the State government and $147 million to the local units of government
thoughout Michigan.
The Kent County Area will receive $6,265,190 the first year. Of that amount, the County
Government will get $2,512,999; Kent townships, $135,555; City of Grand Rapids, $2,682,599;
East Grand Rapids, $41,887; Grandville, $60,948; Lowell, $28,586; Sparta, $30,739; Wyoming,
$641,867; and Walker, $58,601. Kentwood's figure was not immediately available.
The Ionia County Area's share is $549,054.
The County Government will receive $263,528;
the townships, $54,771. City of Ionia will
get $68,038; Belding, $64,600; and Portland,
$34,930.
I have been pushing since 1965 to get
Federal revenue sharing enacted by the
Congress. I am delighted that something
finally is being done about the financial
plight of the local units of government and
the local tax load.
SPENDING LIMIT URGENTLY NEEDED
Because Congress has been greatly exceeding
the President's budget, I joined with Rep.
Frank Bow, R-Ohio, in sponsoring a resolu-
tion setting a $250 billion ceiling on
fiscal 1973 Federal spending.
Last Monday the House Ways and Means Commit-
tee voted to make this spending ceiling part
FINE SERVICE RENDERED Philip Schichtel
of a bill raising the Federal debt limit.
of Grand Rapids was one of the interns working
in my Washington office last summer. His fine
Debt limit legislation is necessary because
work was very much appreciated.
Congress last spring refused to increase the
(over)
ceiling as much as required for continued operation of the government this fiscal year.
The absolute spending limitation is needed if Congress is to grapple successfully with the
government spending problem. Yet House Democrats meeting in caucus last Thursday agreed they
will not support the absolute spending ceiling unless the President first tells them what spend-
ing he will withhold. I think this is a destructive approach.
The Congress must give the President a check-rein on spending because it has been disre-
garding the President's budget requests. As a result, sums far exceeding budget requirements
have been authorized or appropriated by the Congress.
REVISED H.E.W. BILL STILL TOO HIGH
The House has taken the $30.5 billion H.E.W.-Labor appropriation bill vetoed by the Presi-
dent and cut it back to $29.6 billion. Although this was $935,471,000 less than the vetoed
bill, it was still $835,815,000 more than the President's budget. So I voted against the bill,
just as I had voted against the original measure. The revised bill was still too high, but it
passed 324 to 51.
SALT PHASE II IS UPCOMING
Planning can begin for the second phase of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) now
that the House has passed and sent to the President the Senate's version of the U.S.-Soviet
Agreement limiting offensive nuclear weapons.
Rather than take the time to dicker with the Senate over language in the Senate version,
the House simply accepted it last week. This included the so-called "Jackson Amendment" which
insists on equality of nuclear arms in any future agreement on offensive nuclear weapons
between the United States and Russia.
HOUSE WOULD CREATE CONSUMER SAFETY AGENCY
The House has approved a bill which would create an independent agency empowered to set
safety standards for consumer products ranging from lawnmowers to popguns--and, if necessary,
to ban some of them. I voted for the bill.
The measure passed 318 to 50 after opponents of an independent agency dropped attempts to
make it a part of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare--a move backed by the
Administration.
The House bill would make uniform and greatly expand Federal machinery for protecting con-
sumers from dangerous products. Programs enacted in recent years to guard against specific
dangers, such as flammable fabrics, would be brought together in the new agency. Tobacco, fire-
arms, insecticides, food, drugs and motor vehicles are covered by other laws and are exempted.
The Senate has passed a broader bill which would take the Food and Drug Administration out
of H.E.W. and make it part of the new independent regulatory agency.
HOUSE VOTES MILITARY CONSTRUCTION FUNDS
The House approved a $2,278,675,000 military construction appropriation bill for fiscal
1973. The total was $382,709,000 lower than the revised fiscal 1973 budget request--although
$133.3 million greater than in the last fiscal year.
INFLATION CUT IN HALF
Five appropriation bills have yet to pass the
(PERCENTAGE CHANGE IN CONSUMER
+61
Congress in final form. To allow time for this
6.0
PRICE INDEX)
6.0
+5.5
action, the House adopted a "continuing resolu-
tion" which permits spending at the fiscal 1972
5.0
5.0
level by departments for which fiscal 1973 funds
have not yet been appropriated.
4.0
4.0
+3.3
+2.9 *
3.0
3.0
HOUSE PASSES AID BILL
2.0
2.0
The House passed a $4.2 billion foreign aid
1.0
1.0
appropriation bill, which was $967,869,000 below
the budget request. This was about a 20 per cent
reduction. The bill provides $1.5 billion in
0
0
1969
1970
1971
1972
military assistance and includes $1.2 billion in
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
*
Annual rate
economic aid to developing countries.
# # #
Report
Serving
From Your Congressman
Michigan's Fifth District
JERRY FORD
all
October 9, 1972
HISTORIC WATER POLLUTION CONTROL ACT PASSES
Both Houses of Congress last week completed action on a piece of landmark legislation--the
most expensive and most stringent water pollution control bill in the history of the Nation. I
voted for the bill.
The bill is aimed at ridding the country's waters of pollution by 1985. Toward that end,
it would authorize the spending of $24.6 billion in Federal funds in three years.
The measure provides $18 billion in contract obligation authority for Federal grants to
municipalities through fiscal 1975 for the construction of waste treatment plants, including
sewage collection systems.
But let me make this point. Because of the contract obligation provision, no significant
impact would be felt on Federal spending until fiscal 1975, when the first major appropriations
would be required to pay off the contracted Federal obligations.
IMPROVED METHODS ORDERED
The bill requires secondary treatment of all municipal wastes by mid-1977 and the applica-
tion of more advanced disposal methods by mid-1983.
For industry, the bill establishes a two-phase cleanup program. This involves increasingly
tight restrictions on industrial pollution, backed up by fines and imprisonment for violators.
The Federal Government will provide 75 per cent of the cost of constructing a community's
waste treatment plant. It is left to the States and municipalities to work out the funding of
the remaining 25 per cent.
All industries discharging wastes into the Nation's waters must apply the "best
practicable" control technology by July 1, 1977, and the "best available" technology by July 1,
1983.
OTHER PROVISIONS
The water pollution control measure would create a 15-member commission appointed by the
Congress and the President to study the costs and benefits of achieving the 1977 and 1983
deadlines.
It would also permit groups or individual citizens to file suits to force the Environmental
Protection Agency to enforce the law or to seek an injunction against continued pollution if
they can prove a direct "interest" in the case.
It would further establish a separate permit program for the disposal of dredged or fill
material in the Nation's waters, to be administered by the Corps of Engineers. Under this
program, permits would be issued for the disposal of dredged material at specified sites. The
sites would be selected in compliance with guidelines developed by EPA in conjunction with the
Corps of Engineers. The EPA Administrator is empowered to forbid or restrict the use of speci-
fied areas whenever he determines that disposal would have an adverse effect on municipal water
supplies, shellfish, fishing areas, or recreational activities in a given site.
Early this year I introduced a bill which would have banned the dumping of any dredged
material in the Great Lakes. I also authored 8. bill banning any ocean dumping. I say the
water pollution cleanup must go forward.
LIBRARY
(over)
+
WAYS AND MEANS PANEL APPROVES MY NONPUBLIC SCHOOL BILL
The House Ways and Means Committee last week approved my nonpublic school bill in virtually
the same form in which I had introduced it last February.
The bill provides a tax credit up to $200 per pupil for 50 per cent of the tuition a parent
pays to a nonprofit nonpublic school which does not practice racial discrimination. My original
bill called for a tax credit up to $400 per pupil on a 50 per cent basis.
The committee-approved tax credit bill would affect five million children in nonpublic
schools--more than nine out of 10 of them enrolled in religious-affiliated schools. The tax
credit would start phasing out for parents with income of $18,000 a year and would be eliminated
for those with adjusted gross incomes of $22,000 and one child.
Parents who send their children to nonprofit nonpublic schools deserve relief from the dual
school expense burden they are carrying. And they are entitled to the freedom to send their
children to the school of their choice.
HOUSE PASSES TOUGH ANTI-SKYJACKING BILL
By a vote of 354 to 2, the House last week passed an Anti-Skyjacking Act authorizing the
President to suspend U. S. air service to any nation encouraging skyjacking and to bar foreign
airlines from U. S. airfields if these airlines do not maintain adequate security measures as
set by the Hague Convention on international civil aviation.
Besides getting tough with other nations and foreign airlines, the bill provides the death
penalty for a skyjacker if a jury so recommends or, in the absence of the death penalty,
20 years in prison.
This legislation is of the greatest importance in our efforts to halt the growing menace
of air piracy.
We will not be able to end skyjacking until every potential skyjacker realizes that he will
be dealt with severely and that he will have no place to hide if he commits this heinous crime.
HOUSE VOTES TO EXTEND F.H.A. PROGRAMS
The House voted last week to extend existing Federal insurance of home loans and
mortgages until June 30, 1973. This action became necessary when the House Rules Committee
refused to clear a $10.6 billion omnibus housing bill for House floor action-and after the
F.H.A. programs lapsed. The House action must be matched by the Senate to get the F.H.A. pro-
grams going again.
RAISE IN MEAT INSPECTION FEDERAL COST-SHARE KILLED
On a 172 to 169 roll call vote, the House killed a Senate-passed bill which would have
increased the Federal cost-share of State meat inspection from 50 per cent to 80 per cent. I
see no reason to increase the federal government's cost-share.
House members rejected the bill after first eliminating a provision banning Federal pay-
ments to states with labeling and marking standards different from the Federal. Michigan
Agriculture Department officials were concerned about this provision. I was opposed to it
because it would have undermined Michigan's higher meat standards.
'JANE FONDA BILL' FAILS TO GET TWO-THIRDS
Under 8. procedure requiring a two-thirds majority, the House last week failed to pass a
bill which would have empowered the President to forbid Americans to travel to countries with
which the United States was in armed conflict. The bill drew a majority--229 to 141--but did
not get two-thirds approval. The measure became known as the Jane Fonda bill because it was
aimed at Americans who travel to North Vietnam and become propaganda tools of Hanoi. I do not
consider Jane Fonda's activities to be treasonous, but I voted for the bill because I do not
believe such actions as Miss Fonda's are in the national interest.
ITEM TRANSFER REFERENCE FORM
The item described below has been removed to:
New File Location:
Audio - Visual materials
Document Description: Seven 8" 8"x10" black and white photographs,
two graphs, used in Ford's Newsletter " Your Washington
Review," 1972
Old File Location: Ford Congressional newsletter, "Your Washington
Review," 1972
By Dennis M. Lakomy Date January 17,1978
NLFP - 11/4/77