Senate Advances Payments Bill for WWII Internees

The Senate finished work Wednesday on legislation to have the government pay $20,000 to each surviving Japanese-American who was interned during World War II. The measure was sent back to the House.

The payments were part of a $17.2-billion allocation for the Commerce, Justice and State departments for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1.

In two days of debate, the Senate made three changes that required the bill to be returned to the House.

Senators repealed economic sanctions against Argentina, adjusted the State Department’s budget and altered a formula for distributing anti-drug grants to state and local governments.

There was no discussion of the reparation payments for about 60,000 Japanese-Americans the U.S. government interned during World War II.

Under the legislation, the government would make $500 million of the payments in the fiscal year beginning next Oct. 1, $500 million the next year and the remaining $200 million the year after that.