President Ford hinted strongly again today that he would veto the foreign aid authorization bill which both houses of Congress adopted yesterday and sent to him for his signature. Speaking at a news conference in Houston, the President observed that Congress has sustained 39 of his vetoes and claimed that $13 billion of taxpayers’ money had been saved as a result.
Ford did not refer to the foreign aid measure in his remarks. But their nature indicated that he has not altered his opposition to additional funding for the transitional quarter. The Senate approved the authorization bill by a vote of 51-35 late yesterday. Earlier in the day, the House adopted the measure by a vote of 215-185. Both votes were snort of the two-thirds majority required to override a Presidential veto, the Senate by seven votes and the House by 52.
Rep. Otto Passman (D.La.), chairman of the House subcommittee on appropriations, said today that he will not introduce the House-Senate conference committee report on the aid program until after the President acts on the authorization legislation.
Passman told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that if the President vetoes the authorization bill and his veto is sustained, he would ask the House Rules Committee to allow him to have the appropriations measure stand also as an authorization bill. Passman said this was technically possible. It would mean that the program would operate under the policy authorized by last year’s foreign aid bill.
Congressional sources said today that this parliamentary maneuver may well be adopted since the fiscal year has only two months to go and it would be impossible for Congress to draft new foreign aid legislation before it expires June 30.
Capitol sources have made it plain that the Administration’s objections to the authorization bill, which was carefully worked out with Administration experts, were occasioned at the insistence of the arms manufacturing industry which fears that Congressional authority would inhibit their arms sales abroad. According to media reports, the President’s oblique veto threat surprised elements in both the State and Defense Departments that had worked with Congress on the authorization measure.
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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.
