The House : Textile Quotas

By a 263-156 vote, the House passed and sent to the Senate a bill (HR 1154) to preserve American jobs by limiting imports of nearly 200 textile, apparel and footwear products.

Although victorious, supporters fell short of the 290 votes they needed to ensure that they can override President Reagan’s promised veto of the bill.

The bill limits the growth of textile and apparel imports to 1% annually over 1986 levels and freezes footwear imports at the 1986 figure.

Supporter Liz Patterson (D-S.C.) said the bill would counter “foreign competitors with heavy government subsidies and closed markets.”

Opponent John Edward Porter (R-Ill.) said the bill would hurt exports and “shelter our domestic industries from the competition they must ultimately meet.”

Members voting yes supported import quotas.

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

World War II Internment

The House passed, 243 to 141, a bill (HR 442) extending a national apology and financial redress to people of Japanese ancestry who during World War II were relocated from their homes along the West Coast to inland internment camps.

The measure, which was sent to the Senate, grants $20,000 tax-free to each of about 60,000 living former internees. An estimated 120,000 U. S. citizens and aliens from Japan were confined under an executive order issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt 10 weeks after Japan’s Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor.

Supporter Jim Wright (D-Tex.) called the internment “one of those grotesque aberrations in America’s political life . . . for which we seek to make amends.”

Opponent Samuel Stratton (D-N.Y.) said, “Franklin Roosevelt did the right thing, and if he hadn’t done it he would have been probably lynched.”

Members voting yes supported the bill.

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