THE HOUSE

To Fund Committees

By a vote of 349 to 71, the House approved a partial committee budget for 1990 of $56.8 million, up 4.8% over the comparable 1989 authorization and 10.5% over actual spending last year. The measure (HR 346) will fund about half the cost of the House’s approximately 180 committees and subcommittees, with the remainder supplied by separate legislation.

Frank Annunzio (D-Ill.) called the budget “conservative and responsible.”

William E. Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton) objected to “an increase that is twice the level of . . . inflation.”

Members voting yes supported the committee funding.

How They Voted Yea Nay No vote Rep. Beilenson (D) x Rep. Berman (D) x Rep. Gallegly (R) x Rep. Moorhead (R) x Rep. Waxman (D) x

Rural Development

By a vote of 360 to 45, the House sent to the Senate a bill (HR 3581) delivering federal aid to depressed rural areas. At an estimated cost of more than $2 billion over five years, the bill starts new programs, realigns current ones and gives states more voice in funding decisions. It shifts certain programs from the Farmers Home Administration to a new Rural Development Administration.

The bill also expands the Rural Electrification Administration, eases repayment terms of REA and other rural loans and channels aid to communities hurt by curbs on timbering in national forests.

Members voting yes supported the bill.

How They Voted Yea Nay No vote Rep. Beilenson (D) x x Rep. Berman (D) x x Rep. Gallegly (R) x Rep. Moorhead (R) x Rep. Waxman (D) x x

Flag Issue

The House voted 309 to 101 to withdraw from the U. S. Supreme Court its brief for the 1989 law making it a crime to desecrate the American flag. This vote on HR 362 was a victory for Republicans who would rather protect the flag by constitutional amendment. They objected that the Democratic-approved brief asked the court to rule on the flag law in the term beginning in October. They saw this as a delaying tactic by Democrats who want to preserve the statute.

“The longer this House . . . tries to bottle up the statute in the Supreme Court, the longer the flag goes unprotected,” said James F. Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis).

Craig Washington (D-Tex.) said “the cheapest trick of all” is to embroil the flag in partisan politics.

Members voting yes wanted the flag brief withdrawn from the Supreme Court.

How They Voted Yea Nay No vote Rep. Beilenson (D) x Rep. Berman (D) x Rep. Gallegly (R) x Rep. Moorhead (R) x Rep. Waxman (D) x