The Congress: Sense & Insensibility

The Senate last week blasted clear of its great reapportionment logjam. After six weeks of didactic debate, fulminating filibuster and mule-headed obstinacy on all sides, a quorum of weary Senators finally compromised, 44-38, on a “sense of Congress” resolution: federal courts are requested to grant a breathing spell to states reapportioning their legislative districts. In the soft est of language, the resolution asks that courts give the states at least one legislative session, plus an additional 30 days, to meet the Supreme Court’s one-man-one-vote requirements. But the “sense of Congress” really makes very little sense: there is no legal machinery that can compel the federal courts to take cognizance of the resolution. It is about as binding as a rubber band.

With logjam broken, the Senate speedily turned to remaining business. Before the week was out it had:

>Approved, 45-16, the $3.3 billion foreign aid bill—$216 million less than President Johnson originally asked—which now goes to a Senate-House conference. There, two other sticky amendments, one denying aid to Indonesia, the other raising interest rates on development loans, may give the bill further trouble.

> Adopted, 54-11, and sent to the White House, a Senate-House conference report on the $4 billion Food for Peace program. The bill stipulates that the U.S. may not sell farm surpluses to Yugoslavia and Poland unless they are paid for in U.S. dollars. The President opposes that restriction, but a veto is unlikely.

>Quickened Lyndon’s heart by passing, 45-13, the $1 billion “New Hope” plan for the impoverished Appalachia region, last of the President’s major anti-poverty schemes. The bill now goes to the House, where a close vote is expected.