Toward the End

Sick of Washington's sultry heat and weary after a long session, the members of the 87th Congress drove toward an adjournment that still seemed a week or two away. Last week's major Capitol Hill action came in the House. There, by a vote of 270 to 123, the homesick legislators passed and sent to the Senate a $3,657,500,000 foreign aid appropriation.

The figure fell $596 million short of the foreign aid authorization bill that had just been signed by President Kennedy, and it was achieved only after a hard fight. Under the leadership of Louisiana Democrat Otto Passman, a longtime foreign aid critic, the House Appropriations Committee had approved a bill calling for an $896 million cut from the authorized figure, including $400 million to be taken from military aid. In the maneuvering that preceded the floor debate, Passman agreed to reinstate $175 million. Then, on an amendment sent up by Michigan Republican Gerald Ford and backed by G.O.P. leaders, the House voted to reinstate still another $300 million in military aid. The Senate was expected to add a bit more to the foreign aid appropriation, with the difference to be worked out in House-Senate conference committee.

Other action on Capitol Hill last week: > The House grumpily accepted a truncated school-aid bill, extending the $900 million scholarship-loan program and federal aid to "impacted areas"--school districts that are overpopulated because of the children of federal employees--for two more years.

>The Senate approved by a hearty 78-to-8 vote the National Wilderness Preservation System, which will set aside nearly 7,000,000 acres of wilderness for use as new national parks, national forests and wildlife sanctuaries.

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