House Committee to Decide Whether to Cite Morton for Contempt

The House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce is set to decide Tuesday whether to cite Commerce Secretary Rogers C.B. Morton for contempt of Congress for his refusal to give its subcommittee a list of American firms complying with the Arab boycott requests.

Rep. John Moss (D. Calif.), chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, and Rep. James Scheuer (D. NY), who introduced the subcommittee motion to cite Morton, last week refused an offer by the Commerce Secretary to provide the committee with the names of the companies on condition that they not be made public. Morton had refused since last July to submit the names of the companies.

MORTON’S OFFER EXPLAINED

Capitol Hill sources said that Morton’s offer to the committee stems from the desire of the Administration to meet the Congressional requirements for information while restricting its use to avoid complaints that Morton is violating a confidence with the companies he is to name.

But Moss, in a letter to the full committee, said “At stake is the right and duty of Congress to obtain accurate information upon which to make sound decisions.” He noted that “although the Arab boycott has been in existence for 20 years its impact has recently intensified as the result of increased wealth in the Arab world.”

The subcommittee vote to cite Morton was strictly on party lines with the 10 Democrats favoring the contempt action and the five Republic- ans opposed. The full committee, led by Rep. Harley Staggers (D. W. Va.), comprises 29 Democrats and 14 Republicans. Should the committee approve the contempt recommendation, the House as a whole will then have to vote on it.

ADL HAILS POLICY REVERSAL

Meanwhile, Morton on Friday announced that he had ordered the Commerce Department is stop distributing Arab notices of trade opportunities to American firms if they involved boycott restrictions against Israel. “This action is still another clear demonstration of the Administration’s opposition to restrictive trade practices and boycott of countries friendly to the United States,” he said.

Morton’s action was hailed by the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith which had filed a federal district court suit against Morton ordering him to cease disseminating the boycott information. Seymour Graubard, ADL chairman, said this action along with President Ford’s announcement Nov. 20 prohibiting discrimination against Americans stemming from the Arab boycott, means that “the U.S. government has unequivocally told the Arabs that this nation will not permit others to dictate its economic practices or after its constitutional guarantees against discrimination.”

Graubard said that Morton’s action “has in effect settled the ADL’s suit out of court, at least in its major aspect.” He said the ADL will new consider whether to proceed with the suit’s other demand that the Department of Commerce make public the names of companies complying with the Arab boycott. However, this aspect may also be settled by the Congressional action against Morton.