Speech #940062599

Mr. Speaker. this conference report. to which all of the managers. both in the Senate and in the House. have agreed. is basically the Housepassed bill with some additions and modifications which were added from the Senate bill. The Senate bill contained three provisions not found in the House bill. a provision directing the President to retrieve all funds previously authorized and appropriated for assistance to South Vietnam and Cambodia. a provision directing a survey to identify those refugees who desire to return to their native country. and a detailed reporting requirement that differs in several substantial respects from the reporting requirement in the House bill. In addition to those three provisions contained in the Senate bill. and not found in the House bill. the other major difference between the House and Senate bills concerned the authorizatiori level. The House bill provided a ceiling of $507 million. and the Senate bill established an authorization figure of $405 million. The conferees agreed on a reasonable compromise figure of $455 million. With respect to the other differences I wish to note that the Senate was most generous in its willingness to compromise on a number of those provisions. The Senate receded from their amendments relating to the retrieval of foreign assistance funds and those provisions relating to the repatriation of refugees and instead provisions with respect to both of those matters were included in the reporting requirements in section 4 of the bill. The compromise reporting requirement will now require the President to keep the Congress and certain committees thereof currently and fully informed. It provides for a report within 30 days which would set forth. in addition to other matters concerning the status of the refugees. a plan for the resettlement of those refugees remaining in receiving or staging areas. the number of refugees who wish to return to their homes and a description of the plan for their return. including initiatives made by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. and. thirdly. a full and complete description of the steps the President has taken to retrieve and deposit in the Treasury amounts previously authorized and appropriated for use in South Vietnam and Cambodia. In addition. the conferees agreed to incorporate language directing the President to transmit detailed supplementary reports every 90 days thereafter. I believe this is a good conference report.