Jewish members of the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly as a group favor legislative measures selected by the Congressional Black Caucus as of “concern to Black and lower-income persons,” the latest detailed report of voting in the House by the publishers of America’s Black press has disclosed. The report did not deal with the Senate since there is no Black Caucus in that body.
The report by the National Newspaper Publishers Association on “18 key issues” in the current session of Congress from January through August compares the voting records of the 435 House members with the standard of the Caucus which the publishers said they believe “represents the position of the Black community.”
The publishers reported the selected issues ranged from the six budget resolutions on funding for lower-income persons, the Rhodesia policy, school desegregation, fuel assistance for the poor, and amendments to restrict affirmative action for uplifting minorities in employment and education.
The report was presented to the Ninth Annual Legislative Weekend of the Congressional Black Caucus held here Sept. 21-22. It reported line by line the record of each of the 435 members of the House on each issue. However, it offered no breakdown by parties or other groupings. The statistical extracts on the Jewish members were made by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency by culling the individual records.
RECORD OF JEWISH CONGRESSMEN
Of the 23 Jewish Congressmen, nine had perfect records of support for the position of the Black Caucus. Of the 15 Black Congressmen, two failed to achieve 100 percent records in this respect. Of the remaining 397 members of the House, only 12 achieved perfect records. Thus, Jewish Congressmen, numbering less than six percent of the House membership, represented 42 percent of the perfectionists by Caucus standards, more than eight times their numerical total apart from the Black Caucus members.
(The Caucus’ numbers 17 members but two of them–the delegates from the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands–do not have voting rights.)
In addition, the report showed that six Jewish Congressmen achieved scoring records of higher than 75 percent and four others were above 50 percent. Only four were below 50 percent and only one failed to back the Caucus on any of the measures.
Comparatively, 222 of the 435 members scored above 50 percent–just over half the total–for Caucus-backed positions on, legislation, while 213 registered 50 percent or less. Of those, 28 had zero records.
AN IRONICAL FACET
An ironical facet of the report is that the chief proponent in the House of the campaign for U.S. recognition of the Palestine Liberation Organization which is being ardently advanced by many Black leaders is in the low half of the voting records on the issues of concern to the Blacks.
Rep. Paul Findley (R. III.) voted the position of the Caucus on six of the to measures and achieved a score of 35 percent. In opposition to the Black Caucus, Findley favored the Bauman Amendment sending observers to the April 1979 Rhodesian elections and authorizing economic support to Rhodesia; rejected the Weiss Amendment that would have taken a billion dollars from defense spending and transferred it to youth jobs programs, and supported the Coleman Amendment to cut $650 million in spending for food stamps.
Although Findley opposed the Caucus on eight other legislative measures, he arranged for visits in his Congressional office in Washington of the PLO’s representative in the United Nations, Zehadi Labib lerzi, and introduced him to Black leaders lambasting the U.S. and Israeli policy of not dealing with the PLO until it recognizes Israel’s right to exist in peace.
Only two of the 23 Jewish Congressmen scored lower than Findley. Many of the Jewish Congressmen represent districts with large Jewish majorities and most of them have relatively small numbers of Black constituents. Six of the nine perfect scorers represent districts in the New York City area.
Among records showing the concern of Jewish Congressmen for measures helping Blacks and the poor is that of Anthony Beilenson (D. Calif.). The publishers’ report shows zero percentage of Blacks living in his district but his voting record is 100 percent on the Caucus standards. Beilenson is one of two non-Blacks in California’s 43-member Congressional delegation to achieve this record.
Of the 23-member Illinois delegation, the only non-Black with a perfect Caucus record is Rep. Abner Mikva (D), whose district’s population is only three percent Black. Howard Wolpe (D) is the only non-Black in Michigan’s 19-member delegation with a perfect score. Blacks in his district’s population total five percent.
Rep. William Lehman (D. Fla.) was third highest in support of Black positions in the 15-member Florida Congressional delegation while among 24 Texas Congressmen, Martin Frost, a Democrat, ranked fifth.
BREAKDOWN OF VOTING RECORDS
The following are the records of the 23 Jewish members with the percentage of Blacks in their district’s population first and the percentage of support for Black Caucus positions second:
Anthony Beilenson (D. Calif.) zero and 100%; Henry Waxman (D. Calif.) 5% and 83%; Ken Kramer (R. Colo.) 2% and zero; William Lehman (D. Fla.) 18% and 89%; Elliott Levitas (D. Ga.) 15% and 39%; Sidney Yates (D. Ill.) 5% and 89%; Abner, Mikva (D. Ill.) 3% and 100%; Howard Wolpe (D. Mich.) 5% and 100%; Lester Wolff (D. NY) 2% and 83%; Benjamin Rosenthal (D. NY) 4% and 100%; James Scheur (D. NY) 17% and 100%; Stephen Solarz (D. NY) 2% and 100%.
Frederick Richmond (D. NY) 46% and 100%; Elizabeth Holfzman (D. NY) 22% and 100%; William Green (R. NY) 4% and 78%; Theodore Weiss (D. NY) 15% and 100%; Richard Ottinger (D. NY) 13% and 94%; Benjamin Gilman (R. NY) 6% and 61%; Willis Gradison (R. Ohio) 20% and 6%; Marc Marks (R. Pa.) 3% and 59%; Martin Frost (D. Tex.) 26% and 65%.
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.
