The House : South Africa Sanctions

The House adopted, 380 for and 48 against, the conference report on a bill that uses economic sanctions against South Africa to express official U.S. repudiation of that country’s subjugation of nonwhites. In part, the measure prohibits the sale of American computer technology to agencies that enforce Pretoria’s apartheid policies, bans the export of U.S. nuclear technology and equipment to South Africa, blocks the sale of South African Krugerrands (gold coins) in the U.S., and prohibits American bank loans to the South African government.

The Senate is to take up the legislation (HR 1460) after returning in September from its summer recess. President Reagan has signaled a likely veto of the bill.

Supporter Mickey Edwards (R-Okla.) said “there must be no more rationalizations” by U.S. policymakers. “If what is happening in South Africa does not stir moral outrage, what will?”

Opponent Mark Siljander (R-Mich.) deplored South Africa’s apartheid policies but said, “I believe philosophically that sanctions are the wrong approach to prompt change in that nation.”

Members voting yes wanted to impose economic sanctions against South Africa.

How They Voted Yea Nay No vote Rep. Dreier (R) x Rep. Martinez (D) x Rep. Moorhead (R) x Rep. Roybal (D) x Rep. Torres (D) x

Kennedy Center

The House rejected, 200 for and 227 against, an amendment to cut fiscal 1986 funding of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts by 2% ($90,580) below the 1985 appropriation. The Kennedy Center, a creation of Congress, is the closest thing the U.S. has to a national cultural center. But the facility has been criticized because its box office receipts have fallen far short of paying its construction and operating costs.

The amendment was offered to an Interior Department appropriations bill (HR 3011) later passed and sent to the Senate.

Sponsor Clay Shaw (R-Fla.) said the Kennedy Center should “bear (its) fair share of the responsibility in our efforts to reduce the deficit.”

Opponent James Howard (D-N.J.) said the center’s proposed 1986 budget of $4.53 million, requested by President Reagan, was the same as the 1985 appropriation.

Members voting yes wanted to slice $90,580 from the 1986 Kennedy Center budget.

How They Voted Yea Nay No vote Rep. Dreier (R) x Rep. Martinez (D) x Rep. Moorhead (R) x Rep. Roybal (D) x Rep. Torres (D) x

Budget Blueprint

By a vote of 309 for and 119 against, the House adopted the conference report on the fiscal 1986-88 budget resolution (S Con Res 32). The Senate followed suit and the blueprint took effect, governing congressional action on individual authorization and appropriations bills. The measure sets spending ceilings and revenue floors, and determines federal fiscal priorities.

Perhaps its most newsworthy feature, at a time when out-of-control U.S. indebtedness is setting off worldwide alarms, is its 1986-88 deficit projection.

In 1986, the resolution anticipates $967.6 billion in spending, $795.7 billion in revenues and a deficit of $171.9 billion. For the three years, it projects increases of $438.4 billion in the national debt.

Those assumptions would lower the Congressional Budget Office’s earlier 1986 deficit projection by $55.5 billion and the office’s 1986-88 projected deficits by $277.4 billion.

However, many lawmakers, including such leaders in fiscal policy as Rep. William Gray (D-Pa.) and Sen. Robert Dole (R-Kans.) doubt that Congress will even come close to achieving the spending cuts called for by the resolution.

Members voting yes favored the budget blueprint.

How They Voted Yea Nay No vote Rep. Dreier (R) x Rep. Martinez (D) x Rep. Moorhead (R) x Rep. Roybal (D) x Rep. Torres (D) x