Senate Asks State Dept. to Report on Arab Action Against U.S. Jews

The House of Representatives is expected to begin debate this week on the 1962 Foreign Assistance Act which was adopted last week by the Senate with the inclusion of an amendment requiring the Secretary of State to report annually to Congress on steps being taken to counter Arab discrimination against American Jews.

The amendment, sponsored by Republican Senator Jacob Javits, of New York, calls on the Secretary of State to report regularly “on progress under the freedom of communications and non-discrimination declaration” of the existing foreign aid legislation. The Senate-approved amendment was a substitute for one which Senator Javits himself had offered earlier in the week, and which contained the same request for State Department progress reports, but which included additional language, the effect of which would have requested the president to cut off aid to nations practicing discrimination.

The amendment went through the upper chamber with scarcely a word of debate except for the statement of Democratic Senator John Sparkman of Alabama, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and floor manager for the Foreign Aid Bill, who indicated his approval of the amendment.

A stronger amendment to the Foreign Aid Bill has been included also in the House version of the measure. The amendment, offered by Democratic Congressman Farbstein of New York, is expected to win approval of the House.

A draft report of the Senate-passed 1962 Foreign Aid Bill showed today that a total of $24.7 million is being recommended in U.S. assistance for the next fiscal year to help solve the Palestine refugee problem. Of the total, $17.2 million is authorized in the bill, and the remaining $7.5 million will be in the form of surplus commodities of foodstuffs. A grant of $1.7 million–which is included in the $17.2 million figure–would be earmarked for vocational training.