The House

Nuclear Accident Liability

By a vote of 346 to 54, the House passed and sent to the Senate a bill (HR 1414) setting a higher liability limit on the nuclear power industry in the event of a Chernobyl-style catastrophe. The bill extends the 1958 Price-Anderson Act, which automatically fixes liability and puts recovery procedures in motion.

It raises the maximum industry liability for personal and property damages resulting from a nuclear accident to $7.1 billion, from $710 million. The U.S. Treasury would cover any higher damages.

Supporter Phil Sharp (D-Ind.) praised the bill for its “large, assured compensation fund and (its) ease of recovery. . . .”

Calling the bill “a taxpayer rip-off,” opponent Dennis Eckart (D-Ohio) said the $7.1-billion ceiling on industry liability was too low.

Members voting yes supported the bill. Most members voting no wanted the nuclear industry to shoulder more liability.

How They Voted Yea Nay No vote Rep. Beilenson (D) X Rep. Berman (D) X Rep. Dixon (D) X Rep. Levine (D) X Rep. Waxman (D) X

Japanese-American Redress

By a vote of 257 to 156, the House passed and sent to the White House a bill to pay reparations and extend a national apology to Japanese-Americans kept in internment camps during World War II because of their ancestry.

An estimated 60,000 living internees will receive tax-free payments of $20,000 each when the bill becomes law. Overall, about 120,000 U.S. citizens and aliens from Japan were confined under an executive order provoked by Japan’s Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor.

Supporter Norman Mineta (D-Calif.) said the House was taking “the brave step of admitting and redressing a monumental injustice.”

Opponent Howard Coble (R-N.C.) termed it “unfair and perhaps even presumptuous” for the House to judge a government policy set when America’s survival was at stake.

Members voting yes supported the bill.

How They Voted Yea Nay No vote Rep. Beilenson (D) X Rep. Berman (D) X Rep. Dixon (D) X Rep. Levine (D) X Rep. Waxman (D) X

Homeless Aid

By a vote of 203 to 215, the House rejected an amendment to use block grants rather than categorical grants for distributing federal homeless aid. The vote occurred as the House sent to the Senate a bill (HR 4352) reauthorizing a wide range of programs for the homeless.

The rejected amendment sought to combine categorical grants for emergency shelters, housing demonstration projects and general aid into a single block grant that was to be awarded to states and localities nationwide with few strings attached.

Categorical grants channel scarce homeless aid to a limited number of larger cities, whereas block grants spread the money among many more jurisdictions nationwide.

Members voting yes wanted homeless aid distributed via block grants.

How They Voted Yea Nay No vote Rep. Beilenson (D) X Rep. Berman (D) X Rep. Dixon (D) X Rep. Levine (D) X Rep. Waxman (D) X

Judge’s Impeachment

The House voted 413 to 3 to impeach U.S. District Judge Alcee Hastings of the Southern District of Florida. The impeachment resolution (H Res 499) charges Hastings with conspiring to accept bribes, disclosing confidential FBI information and committing perjury.

If convicted in a Senate trial expected next year, the 51-year-old jurist would become the sixth federal official since 1787 removed from office by impeachment.

How They Voted Yea Nay No vote Rep. Beilenson (D) X Rep. Berman (D) X Rep. Dixon (D) X Rep. Levine (D) X Rep. Waxman (D) X