House Majority Warns USSR on Emigration

More than half of the membership of the House have joined in sponsoring the “Freedom of Emigration Act” aimed at causing the Soviet Union to eliminate the head tax and other measures preventing Soviet Jews and others who wish to emigrate from doing so. The legislation will be introduced formally in the House tomorrow by Rep. Wilbur D. Mills (D. Ark.) chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, and Rep. Charles A. Vanik (D. Ohio) who authored the act and had initiated action against Soviet emigration discrimination in the last Congress.

With the United States and the Soviet Union governments having signed a widespread trade agreement-last Sept., the proposed legislation would restrain the U.S. from giving the USSR most favored nation treatment until, in Vanik’s words, the Soviet Union “ceases its discriminatory emigration policies.” The Cleveland legislator has held that the U.S. “as a nation cannot overlook denigration of human rights for the sake of commercial gain.”

Pointing out that the U.S. government had under Republican President Howard Taft acted against Russia 62 years ago in a similar situation, Vanik observed that “this unsavory experience is not new in our relations with Russia.” In 1911, he said, because of the pogroms against Russian Jews at that time, the U.S. government cancelled the 79-year-old commercial treaty of 1832 to “demonstrate our abhorrence of that officially condoned policy of terror.”

The Mills-Vanik emigration act parallels legislation proposed last Oct. by Senator Henry M. Jackson (D. Wash.) which 76 Senators back–more than three-quarters of that chamber’s 100 members–and also that which Vanik himself had proposed shortly afterwards as a companion measure with 161 sponsors. Pending the administration’s presentation for ratification of the Soviet-American trade agreement, Jackson has not yet re-introduced his proposal to the Senate. However, he and Mills are holding a joint news conference tomorrow when some of the Congressional feeling on Soviet restrictions is likely to be aired.

EXPECT MORE THAN 250 SPONSORS

A preliminary list of sponsors made available to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency today showed the names of 244 sponsors of the “Freedom of Emigration Act” and key members said that the list will go well over 250 by the time Mills proposes it on the floor. With the House membership totaling 435, a majority constitutes 218.

On the list thus far are 173 of the 243 Democrats, just over half, and 71 of the 192 Republicans, more than one-third. The sponsors are from 46 states. Only Nebraska, Montana, Nevada and Mississippi are absent. The delegates, although non-voting, from the Virgin Islands, Guam and the District of Columbia also are favoring the act. The Puerto Rico delegate, however, is not listed.

All 12 of the Jewish Representatives, 10 Democrats and two Republicans, and all 16 members of the Congressional Black Caucus whose chairman is Rep. Louis Stokes (D. Ohio) are on the list. Absent thus far is Rep. Charles C. Diggs (D. Mich.) who had been a sponsor of the Vanik bill last autumn. Fifteen of the 25 members of the Ways and Means Committee are sponsors. Of the Committee’s 15 Democrats, 12 are sponsors. Three of the 10 Republicans are also listed.

ALL SHADES OF POLITICAL OPINION

The sponsorship represents all political shades within the House. Among the Democratic leadership’s sponsors are Majority Leader Thomas P. O’Neill of Massachusetts who is also chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Party Whip John McFall of California; Rules Committee chairman Ray J. Madden of Indiana who also heads the Democratic steering committee and study group chairman Philip Burton of California.

On the Republican side, however, only John Rhodes of Arizona, chairman of the Republican Policy Committee in the House who was chairman of the Republican Party’s platform committee for last year’s Presidential election, and Bob Wilson of California, head of the Republican National Congressional Campaign Committee are sponsors. Absent are such party leaders as Minority Leader Gerald Ford of Michigan, Party Whip Lesie C. Ahrens of Illinois and Republican Conference Chairman John B. Anderson of Ill.

The position of the Republican leadership in the House and also of the administration may have been expressed in a resolution offered to the House on Jan. 9 by Anderson. His presentation essentially was similar to the view reportedly expressed by President Nixon last fall when he told a Jewish group in New York that “quiet diplomacy” rather than legislation is the better way to induce the Soviet Union to relax its emigration policy.