The Senate today unanimously approved a concurrent resolution expressing “the solidarity of the American people with the efforts to enlarge human freedom by the participants in the Second Brussels Conference” on Soviet Jewry which opens in the Belgian capital Feb. 17. The conference, which will be attended by 1000 Jewish leaders from around the world along with Protestant and Catholic spokesmen, comes five years after the first Brussels conference in 1971 that marked the beginning of large-scale intensive action on behalf of Soviet Jewry.
The Senate resolution, introduced only yesterday by Sens. Henry M. Jackson (D. Wash.) and Clifford Case (R.NJ), had 14 additional sponsors from a dozen states. They were Sens. James Buckley (R.Cons.NY); Joseph Montoya (D.NM); John Durkin (D.NH); Gale McGee (D.Wyo.); Richard Stone (D.Fla.); Thomas McIntyre (D.NH); Harrison Williams (D.NJ); Hugh Scott (R.Pa.), the Senate Minority Leader; Frank Church (D.Idaho); Abraham Ribicoff (D.Conn.); Hubert Humphrey (D.Minn.); Jacob K. Javits (R.NY); Jesse Helms (R.NC); and Birch Bayh (D.Ind.)
The House of Representatives, which has an identical resolution before it with a score of sponsors led by Rep. James Scheuer (D.NY) will vote on it next week. A concurrent resolution expresses the sense of both Houses of Congress on a proposition. It differs from a joint resolution that when it is adopted by the two chambers it goes to the President. If he signs it, the resolution incurs the force of law.
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