Senate Committee Votes $66,380,000 Aid to Jewish Refugees in Israel

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee today voted for an appropriation of $66,380,000 for aid to Jewish refugees in Israel. This represented a 12.6 percent reduction in the amount requested by President Truman. The cut reflected a general across-the-board slash of the entire program.

The amount of technical cooperation assistance for the Near East, in which Israel will share, was reduced to $48,038,000 for the area. President Truman had requested $55,000,000. An appropriation for the relief of Arab refugees was cut from $65,000,000 to $56,772,000.

Chairman Tom Connally of the Foreign Relations Committee today predicted that the committee’s version of the bill will be accepted by the Senate when it comes up for debate on Monday. Although the committee reduced the $7,900,000,000 program by one billion dollars, Republicans have indicated that they will attempt to slice off as much as $900,000,000 more when the bill is on the Senate floor.

Senator Bourke Hickenlooper, a Republican member of the Foreign Relations Committee, made known today that he may ask the Senate for an amendment, which failed when presented before an executive session of the committee, to change the Point Four program of technical assistance for underdeveloped areas from grants to loans. Aid to Israel and Arab refugees is administered by the Technical Cooperation Administration as a part of the Point Four program.

Sen. Hickenlooper said his view is based on the theory that the technical know-how of this country, provided through Point Four projects, is expected to create new wealth in the aided countries. If this is true, the Senator said, the new wealth, when created, should repay the United States for the initial investment.