House Invites Veto, Keeps Factory Rider in Trade Bill : Won’t Send Measure to Conferees

The House ignored President Reagan’s veto threats today and overwhelmingly approved a trade reform bill designed to open world markets and crack down on foreign trade abuses. The vote was 312 to 107.

Passage came minutes after representatives rejected a Republican plan to torpedo a controversial plant closing amendment that Reagan had threatened would trigger a veto.

The House voted 253 to 167 against a proposal by Republican leader Robert H. Michel of Illinois to send the bill back to a joint House-Senate conference to strip off the amendment requiring businesses to give their employees 60 days notice before closing a plant or ordering massive layoffs.

The advance notice provision is the brainchild of union leaders--and vehemently opposed by business and Reagan.

Democrats Prevail

“If the motion is adopted, we’ll get a presidential signature on this bill,” Michel promised.

But the Democratic leadership, frustrated by weeks of unproductive negotiations with the Administration, prevailed, convincing their members to reject the GOP alternative. The vote for final passage of the trade bill--including the plant closing language--followed.

The trade reform bill is designed to open international markets to American products, crack down on foreign trade abuses, streamline U.S. export controls, promote American exports and expand assistance for industries and workers hurt by imports.

It is the result of years of work, culminating in one of the largest joint conference committees in congressional history. Nearly 200 lawmakers have worked since January to craft a compromise trade bill from the differing versions passed by the House and Senate last year.

Long-Term Solutions

The 14-inch-thick conference report, rushed to the House for a vote even before it could be printed, consisted of more than 2,000 pages of legislative language and explanations bound together with rubber bands.

In addition to focusing on immediate remedies to America’s huge trade deficit and grant the Administration broad authority to participate in a new round of world trade negotiations, the bill includes some long-term solutions such as allocating more than $750 million for education and training programs to improve the future competitiveness of the American work force.