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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 19, 1986)
% 1 » Amendment to aid middle class cut Senate rejects tax relief measure WASHINGTON (AP) — Thr Scna«e on tt>r vrigr at appro^mg one of the mow-sweeping ux plans of the 20th remurv. rejected an amendment Wednewtav that would have targeted more tax relief to mid dle-income Americans at the ex pense of the rich. A 71-29 vote killed the amend ment hv Sen. George Mitchell. D- Mame, clearing away what appar- entlv was the Iasi major hurdle to E assage of the tax-overhaul package. orty-nine Republicans and 22 Democrats voted against the amend ment; 25 Democrats and 4 Republi cans favored it. A final vote on the bill is likely this afternoon, which would send it to a compromise conference with the House, which has approved a markedly different version. Mitchell said that while the Senate measure is a great improvement over present law, it falls short of per fection. “The bill does a kit for the rich, a kn for the poor, and little for the middle class,' 1 he said, and of fered his amendment as a solution. Mitchell proposed to create a third tax rate of 55 percent that would apply only to the 5 percent of taxpayers with the highest incomes That would pay for greater tax re ductions at iowei levels. I he Finance Committee bill would give those with incomes between ISO.000 and $40,000 tax cuts averaging 5 per cent. Mitchell wanted to boost that relief to 10.4 percent. Under the bill, said Sen. Paul Sar banes. D-Md.. even senators would get a larger tax cut that the average middle-income family House passes harsh sanctions on South Africa WASHINGTON (AP) — The House unexpectedly approved on Wednesday legislation calling for withdrawal of u.S. business invest ment in South Africa and an all-out trade embargo, the harshest sanc tions yet proposed against the white- minority Pretoria government. The punitive steps approved by voice vote on a substitute amend ment for the Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986 came at a tune of rising indig nation in Congress over apartheid in South Africa. Bui it became clear that many law- makeis joining in the chorus of “aves" were concerned more about thwarting sanctions than imposing them. Republicans who aikmed the sub stitute measure to go through said they did so as a parliamentary pkiv to kill prospects that sanctions will ever be imposed. The wav to do this, thev said, was to report out a bill so harsh there was no wav it would ever become law. If adopted by the Senate and signed into law by President Reagan, the measure would order all U.S. companies out of South Africa within 180 days and impose a total trade embargo. In approving the substitute for a measure which had been crafted by the House Foreign Affairs (xmrniit- tee. the lawmakers ignored a last- minute letter from national security adviser John Poindexter, who ar gued that punitive sanctions would cripple U.S. diplomacy and “strengthen the hands of extrem ists." I he vote came af ter Rep Ronald Delhi ms. D-Calif , said the crisis in South Africa calls for the abandon ment of timdity. The bill approved was a Dellums amendment which substituted for language developed by members of the committee. The panel's bill would have imposed a measured and incremental set of sanctions. The revised bill was passed when Republicans did not demand roll call votes. Strong medicine is needed “to end this madness." he declared. Dellums had called on the House to discard halfway measures and to adopt “an all out. powerful, aggres sive statement." “I'm going to have a heart attack," an astonished Dellums said after the vote. He said he thought the Repub licans did not ask for a roll call vote because "the momentum is on our side. The Republicans don't have the numbers to wreck this legislation." Rep. William Gray, D-Pa., pro claimed: "This is historic; the House just voted total disinvestment “ But Rep. Mark Siljander, R-MkH., who led opposition to imposition of sanctions, declared: "This whole bill is dead Sanctions are dead." House Republican leader Robert Michel of Illinois had said he did not have the votes to block passage of the more measured and incremental approach advocated in Grav’s mea sure. “The Dellums bill is a lemon." Sil- jander said. “Frankly it's the kiss of death. So we decided to lose the bat tle and win the war and let this lemon flv through and kill sanction* once ana for all ' Rep I homas P. O’Neill, D-Mass., evidently seeking to emphasize the positive aspects of what had tran spired. said, “The House has con demned apartheid in the strongest possible terms. Today’s biparUMM action shows the tidal wave of Amer ican revulsion against the discred ited policy" of trying to work with the Pretoria government to bring about social change constructiv* engagement Rep Daniel Burton. R-Ind., said the reason the Dellums substitute measure was passed .. was because we knew something was going to E and it was better to let a lousy jo through." 50 A&M profs join boycott of SDI research By Sondni Pickard | Reporter By signing a petition that is circu- latmg on over 100 university cam puses. about 50 Texas AJcM Univer sity professors have joined, a nationwide academic boycott of “Star Wars” research In response to the AfcM visit Fri day by Sen Phil Gramm and the top cchekm of the Strategic Defense Ini- uative Organization research team, a petition was started at AJcM a few weeks ago which is almost identical to one circulating at other universi ties across the country. When Dr. John McDermott, dis tinguished professor of philosophy and professor and head of Humani ties in Medicine, introduced the peti tion to the Faculty Senate two weeks ago. he said President Frank E. Van diver was “irate, hostile and furious" about it. Vandiver is on vacation and was ndt available for comment ' Citing a mixture of political, tech nical and academic concerns, each of the participants signing the original petition has pledged not to solicit or accept any funds from the contro versial balkstK missile defense pro- gram Although the petition at AJcM. drafted by physics professor Dr Was nr Saskiw. does not ask its sig ners to deny research funding com pletely . it does explain that it would be "unethical to accept research money for a project that has no rea sonable likelinood of success. The principal explanation given m the petition is that the program is an "ill-conceived and faltering pro ject." But it also complains that there is “a great risk of infringement on academic freedom by undertaking research which may later become classified, and such potentially classi fied research is not in consonance with the staled mission of Texas AfcM. a public land-grant University responstnle to the citizens of the state of Texas " Saskiw said the petition here is specifically drafted for AicM, with additions to and deletions from the original <me. "I’m realh concerned that some thing is going to be happening with respect to AicM," Saskiw said. “The SDI office has really had a hard time getting universities to accept money, and I think that thev’ve solved that through Phil Gramm and his con nections with AicM." Using the Challenger disaster as an example. Saskiw said the abun dance of Star Wars funds would guarantee that a generation of scien tists and engineers would be forced to work on an economically unpro ductive project which can't possibly work. “Ortam people who should know much better have lost serious track 'Star Wars 7 researchers to visit campus Friday By Sondra Pickard Senttn Stuff Writer Sen. Phil Gramm and Texas AicM University officials Friday want to ensure a visiting "Star Wan" research team and the di rector of the Strategic Defense Initiative that AicM has the capa bilities to do the kind of research SDI needs. The group is headed by Li. (ien. James A. Abrahamson. SDI director. Uarrv Neal, a spokesman for Gramm, saw! Gramm hopes to fo cus Abrahamson’s attention on the research facilities and capabi lities that exist in Texas. "What we hope is that they will come awav from two davs of pre tty intense examination of the fa cilities and research personnel at AicM with the feeling that this is the place thev can go with their programs when thev get under way on a full scale," hieal said “And A&M is known far and wide for its research capabilities in both faculty and facilities." On its two-dav trip, the group also will be kioking at the Univer sity of Houston. University of Texas and Texas Tech Univer sity, he said Essentially, Neal said officials want to make sure those running the program know Texas has fa- i limes ihai can be of great value to them. “One need onlv look beyond yirtuaHv the day after tomorrow to see that the SDI program is going to be enormous once*at full Male." he said Dr. John Thomas, director of the AicM Onter for Strategic Technology, said although AicM's involvement in SDI hasn't been enormous, the university Phil Gramm has been working on relatively small projects for about three years. Elements of SDI were under way here long before the pro gram was officially announced bv President Ronald Reagan in 1983. he said. Currently. AicM is receiving a total of $12.5 million in federal James A. Abrahamson defense research funding for 128 separate projects Only one of those projects is for SDI research and is funded at less than $200,000 Thomas said Abrahamson was here less than a month ago. at which time universkv officials made a general poch for more in volvement in SDI. of whai our priorities should be," he said, “and 1 really worry for the country." Saskiw said SDI research funding, which could run into the billions of dollars, is basicalls there to try to keep college protessors from being a source of critic ism But support for Star Wars on campus is certainly not absent. Dr John Thomas, director for the A&M Teenier for Strategic Studies, said the government should be able to get its hands on the best minds in the country when it has a need for research. “These people that worry excessi vely about academic freedom ought to look at just freedom alone," I homas said. “I think it is their duty as citizens to help protect that free- See petition. page4 Drug traffic discussed in El Paso meeting EU PASO (AP) — About a third of all cocaine, heroin and marijuana consumed in the United Stases is either from Mex ico or reaches this country through our neighbor to the south, a Treasury Department of ficial said Wednesday. “Him m not to point the finger at Mexico." said Francis A. Keat ing. assistant secretary of the Treasury Department for en forcement. “Twy mav be the re tail liquor store, hut we are the drunks " Keating was in Fort Worth to meet with representatives of law enforcement agencies from Cali fornia. Anzosia. New Mexico and Texas. The meeting was pan of the Southwest Border Initiative, or SBI, an efTon to pool the re sources of federal, state and local agencies to fight the traffic of ille gal drugs from Mexico into the United Mates “We .. . cannot wait idly by for Amerka s appetite for drugs to subside." said Keating 25 die in Grand Canyon plane crash helicopters to remove the bodies. But he said poor flying conditions and the need to complete investiga tive work would delay the removal of the bodies until Thursday morning ai the earliest. GRAND CANYON VTULAGE, Ariz. (AP) — A helicopter and a twin-engine plane, botn carrying sightseers, collided and crashed t in flames into the Grand Canyon on Wednesday, killing all 25 people aboard Coconino Counts sheriff s depart- mem officers reported 20 dead from the plane, which was carrying mostly foreign tourists, and five dead from the helicopter The dead aboard the De Hayii land Twin Otter airplane included 11 from the Netherlands, two from Switzerland, one from South Africa and six from the United States, in cluding the two pikHs, said John Guthrie, deputy superintendent of the Grand Canyon National Park. He had no breakdown on the dead aboard the helicopter, a Bell 206. Guthrie initially said there were mx dead aboard the helicopter, but Ut. Jim Driscoll said at the sheriffs department headquarters in Flags taff that there were onlv five people aboard The aircraft went down several hundred vards apart on a rugged hillside north of tne Colorado River and about one mile south of the Grand Canyon's north nm. Park Ranger Charlie Peterson, who was among the first to reach the crash site, sain it was in a gorge called Tuna Creek, about one mile north of the river. The plane's tail section was found roughly one-quarter of a mile away from the rest of the wreckage, said Coconino County Sheriff Joe Rich ards. "It would appear that the tail sec tion had been sheared off," said Richards. "It appears that it might have been sheared off by the heli copter rotor. That's just specu lation. “ Richards said his office planned to ask the Arizona National Guard for Larry Bjork of the Federal Avi ation Administration's flight service station at Prescott, Ariz , said the plane and helicopter were both op erating undei visual “see and be seen" flight rules and neither was be ing tracked bv FAA radar The plane belonged to Grand Canyon Airlines and the helicopter to Hetitech Inc.