Panel Votes Not to Fund Payments for Internees : But Senate Unit Would Make Japanese-American Reparations Automatic Beginning in Fiscal 1991

In another setback for Japanese-Americans who were rounded up during World War II, a Senate subcommittee voted Tuesday to provide no money in the coming year to compensate survivors of the internment camps.

The Senate Appropriations subcommittee on commerce, justice, state and the judiciary proposed instead to delay funding of the reparations program until the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, 1990.

Last year, former President Ronald Reagan signed a measure authorizing the government to pay $20,000 in reparations to each of the estimated 60,000 survivors of the internment. So far, however, Congress has yet to come up with any money for payments.

Program Called a Hoax

A delegation of Japanese-Americans from California who traveled here to lobby for the funding said that the reparations program is becoming a cruel hoax.

“This is shocking and a slap in the face to Japanese-Americans,” Sox Kitashima, 70, of San Francisco said on the Capitol steps after the vote. “Our happiness has turned to anger.”

But the subcommittee vote was not a total defeat for reparations proponents. After first rejecting any funding for the 1990 fiscal year, the appropriations subcommittee agreed to a plan that would guarantee $500 million in annual funding, beginning in fiscal 1991.

Under the subcommittee plan, the Japanese-American reparations would be converted into an entitlement program, such as Social Security or Medicare, a change that would assure automatic funding each year.

If the entitlement approach is approved by the full Senate and the House, all of the 60,000 surviving internees would receive their reparations within three years.

‘Bitter Disappointment’ Cited

Rep. Norman Y. Mineta (D-San Jose) called the entitlement plan a “big carrot,” but he said that the proposal does not make up for the “bitter disappointment” caused by the subcommittee vote to deny funding for the coming year.

Last month, the House approved $50 million in reparations for 1990. Mineta and Rep. Robert T. Matsui (D-Sacramento) said that they would seek to honor that commitment by making sure the $50 million remains in the final appropriations bill.

Both houses are rushing to complete their appropriations measures by Oct. 1. A conference committee must reconcile differences between the Senate and House on funding for the reparations program.

Senate staff aides said that the reparations program has become caught in the classic Washington struggle between “authorizations” and “appropriations.” Typically, Congress passes legislation that authorizes spending large amounts of money, without actually providing the funds. The reparations program is an example, because it was passed as an authorization.

Too Little Money

But the appropriations committees must decide how much money actually will be spent. Because they rarely have enough money available to cover the authorized spending levels, the appropriations panels must short-change some authorized expenditures.

“We didn’t have any choice. We didn’t have enough money to cover this (reparations),” Dorothy Seder, a subcommittee aide, said. “We had to increase the funding for federal prisons by $121 million, and that ate up all of our allocation.”

If the reparations program becomes an entitlement, it would not be counted as an annual appropriation, she said.

Under the federal government’s budgeting system, it would be easier to fund a $500-million annual entitlement than an $50-million appropriation.