% 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