West German Finance Minister Rolf Dahlgren told the press here today he hoped a Parliamentary committee would find a solution during the current legislative period to a deadlock of the two Parliamentary chambers over a proposed increase in a special hardship fund for victims of Nazism.
The Bundestag, the lower house, voted last month to expand from 700,000,000 marks ($175,000,000) to 1,200,000,000 marks ($300,000,000) a fund set up to compensate victims who were unable to file claims by an October 1953 deadline because they were then in Iron Curtain counties.
However, when the bill came before the Bundesrat, the upper chamber, last week, that body rejected the proposed increase by a large majority. The West German states, which are represented in the Bundesrat and which would be required to share the costs of the new fund on 50-50 basis with the federal government, contended that the issue was a matter of foreign policy for which the federal government should bear the full burden. The deadlock was turned over to the Parliamentary Committee on Mediation, which the function of resolving deadlocks between the two chambers.
Dr. Dahlgren said today he hoped a solution would be found this month so that the law could become effective during the current legislative period. He added he hoped that “the people concerned will understand and help to bring through this law, which was so difficult to achieve.”
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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.
