The California State Senate and Assembly adopted a joint resolution today urging President Nixon to support and Congress to enact, legislation to amend the East-West Trade Act so as to deny most favored nation status to the Soviet Union as long as it restricts the emigration of its citizens by imposing oppressive taxes or by other means.
Harold B. Light, vice-chairman of the California Union of Councils for Soviet Jewry, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the initiative for the joint resolution originated with his group after the New York State Legislature adopted a similar one last month. He said that when they learned of the action in Albany “we immediately informed our Senator, Milton Marks and our Assemblyman, Willie L. Brown Jr.” who co-sponsored the resolution in the California State Legislature.
The resolution in effect calls for support and enactment of the Jackson and Mills-Vanik amendments currently pending in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. Light said copies of the California resolution would be sent to President Nixon, to the Vice President and to the entire California Congressional delegation. Light noted that Californian’s two U.S. Senators, Alan Cranston and John V. Tunney, both Democrats, were early supporters of the Jackson Amendment and that more than two-thirds of California’s House delegation backs the Mills-Vanik measure.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
