Senate Backs Loan Guarantees to Build Housing for Soviet Jews

The Senate on Tuesday approved $400 million in investment guarantees to provide housing loans for newly arrived Soviet emigres in Israel.

The $400 million was contained in a $3.4 billion supplemental appropriations bill for this fiscal year, which began Oct. 1.

The House of Representatives approved the $400 million on April 3, as part of a $2.4 billion version of the bill.

Differences in the two bills must now be ironed out by a House-Senate conference committee before final passage by Congress.

President Bush has threatened to veto the measure if the conference committee adopts a Senate rider to the bill allowing the District of Columbia to pay for abortions for poor women.

Both the Senate and House bills contain $35 million to help Jewish groups bring Soviet Jews to the United States or resettle them in Israel.

Of the $35 million, $30 million would go to the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, which assist Soviet Jews seeking entry to the United States.

Both houses also approved $5 million for the United Israel Appeal, which distributes funds raised by the United Jewish Appeal for the absorption of immigrants in Israel.

UIA earlier received nearly $25 million to resettle Soviet Jews in Israel this year. The money was directed to the Jewish Agency for Israel.

THOUSANDS STILL COMING TO U.S.

Congress is providing the funds to meet the demand created by an unprecedented exodus of Jews from the Soviet Union.

More than 27,000 Soviet Jews have arrived in Israel so far this year, over 10,000 in April alone. By comparison, just over 12,000 Soviet Jews arrived in Israel during all of 1989.

At the same time, a large number of Soviet Jews are still coming to the United States on American visas. A total of 9,434 Soviets, mainly Jews, arrived here in March, said Pamela Lewis, spokeswoman for the State Department’s refugee affairs bureau.

A maximum of 50,000 Soviets will be allowed to come to the United States as refugees this fiscal year, which began Oct. I. As of March 31, 37,592 Soviets had arrived, the vast majority of them Jews, according to Lewis.

That means that in the last five months of the 1990 fiscal year, only a few thousand Soviet Jews will be allowed to enter the United States as refugees.

The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society estimates that 40,000 Soviet Jews will be entering the United States this fiscal year, about 8,000 of whom will be coming without government funding.

Phillip Saperia, assistant executive vice president of HIAS, said approximately 35,000 will come to the United States via Rome, where the United States has a refugee processing center.

The United States has been trying to clear refugees out of the processing center, which it hopes to close by early June. Saperia said that as of April 26, there were roughly 4,500 Soviet Jews left in Rome.

While Saperia expects nearly all of them to enter the United States by the end of the year, there are signs of a growing backlog in Moscow that cannot be accommodated until the next fiscal year begins Oct. 1.

Royce Fichte, director of the State Department’s Washington processing center, which handles paperwork for Soviet refugees wanting to be interviewed at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, said that between January and June, 10,421 Soviets have been scheduled for interviews there.

But Lewis said that since Oct. 1, the United States has distributed 500,000 applications to potential Soviet refugees and has received back 200,000 completed forms.

Saperia said that for the next fiscal year, Jewish groups will ask Congress and the administration to reauthorize the 50,000 refugee ceiling, but find necessary funding so that none would have to come with private aid.

This fiscal year, 10,000 Soviet refugees are being admitted to the United States without government funding.