INSIDE WASHINGTON
JAMES D. BESSER
Washington Correspondent
M
ore and more, it
looks as if Jewish
activists will be
forced to make a stark choice
between their desire for a
federal program to support
safe, reliable child care, and
their concerns about
dangerous church-state
precedents.
Officially, most Jewish
groups are supporting the
newest version of the
primary House bill, which
was expected to emerge this
week after a lengthy turf
struggle between rival
House committees.
But there is a widespread
expectation that amend-
ments allowing for child-
care vouchers to be used for
religious instruction will be
introduced when the bill
reaches the House floor,
possibly as early as this
week.
Complicating matters is a
new Republican child care
package authored by Rep.
Charles Stenholm (D-Texas)
and Rep. E. Clay Shaw Jr.
(R-Fla.).
"This is a very bad piece of
legislation," said Judy
Golub, the American Jewish
Committees associate repre-
sentative in Washington.
"The bill gets rid of school-
based child care, and it actu-
ally requires vouchers for
sectarian education. It's bad
child care, and it's bad chur-
ch-state policy."
The Senate has already
passed a child care bill that
has won the support of
Agudath Israel of America
and Union of Orthodox Jew-
ish Congregations of
America. But most other
Jewish groups support the
original House version.
The real question is how
far Jewish activists are will-
ing to compromise on the
church-state question as the
price for some kind of federal
child-care legislation.
The American Jewish
Committee has promised to
oppose any bill that includes
vouchers for sectarian ser-
vices — a tough decision for a
group that was in the
forefront of the child care
drive.
But other groups are
somewhere in the middle.
"With the exception of the
Orthodox groups, nobody in
the Jewish community is
happy with this voucher
language," said an official
with one major Jewish
group. "But affordable child
care is a very high priority
for us, and this may be the
best we're likely to get."
Orthodox Union Fetes
African Ambassadors
Members of the Union of
Orthodox Jewish Congrega-
tions of America (OU) were
in town this week for a
round of lobbying and the
usual lineup of congres-
sional and administration
briefings.
Not so usual was an OU
reception on Tuesday for the
ambassadors from six black
African nations that have
maintained or renewed ties
to Israel.
"We thought it was impor-
tant to pay tribute to these
countries that stood up to
the Arab boycott and the
prospect of losing their
access to Arab oil," said
William Rapfogel, director of
the OU's Institute for Public
Affairs, the group's political
action arm. "They showed
real courage."
The countries honored
were the Ivory Coast,
Kenya, Togo, Camaroon,
Liberia and Ethiopia.
Several members of the con-
gressional black caucus were
also scheduled to attend.
At press time, Israeli am-
bassador Moshe Arad was a
question mark for the event;
according to several sources
here, the Israeli embassy
had postponed responding to
the OU invitation until it
was clear that enough
African diplomats would
show up.
Also on the OU's schedule
was an assault on Capitol
Hill on a number of issues,
including the status of
Jerusalem, aid for the reset-
tlement of Soviet Jews in
Israel and energy conserva-
tion — a new domestic focus
for the Orthodox group.
The group will also train
its guns on the U.S.-PLO
dialogue; the OU is the only
major Jewish group actively
urging the administration to
break off the talks in Tunis
with PLO officials.
Bush's Words On Israel
Stir Up Hill Activists
Israel's supporters in Con-
gress spent a frustrating
week trying to sort out ap-
propriate responses to the
crisis touched off by Presi-
dent George Bush's recent
comments on East
Jerusalem.
But so far, pro-Israel legis-
lators have been hindered by
the government crisis in
Jerusalem — and by some
mixed feelings about the ap-
parent end of the Shamir
government.
Sen. Rudy Boschwitz (R-
Minn.) was first across the
finish line with a letter to
Bush and Secretary of State
James Baker. The Boschwitz
letter was signed by seven
senators and a single con-
gressman — Rep. Ben
Gilman (R- N.Y.).
Sen. Daniel Patrick
Moynihan (D-N.Y.) and Sen.
Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) put
together a "sense of the
Senate" resolution saying
much the same thing.
But the Moynihan-
Lieberman resolution ap-
parently got a cool reception
from the American-Israel
Public Affairs Committee
(AIPAC), which is anxious to
Bills Would 'Privatize'
Cost Of Immigration
Soviet Jewry activists are
keeping a wary eye on the
revival of several proposals
that would allow the admis-
sion of additional Soviet
Jews to this country by pro-
viding loans to the new ar-
rivals.
The legislation was
spurred by last year's shift
in U.S. refugee policies
which limited the number of
Soviet Jews admitted to this
country — and by the un-
precedented flood of Jews
leaving the Soviet Union.
Sen. Howard Metzenbaum
(D-Ohio) is preparing a bill
that would require all refu-
gees to assume responsibili-
ty for a portion of the cost to
the federal government of
their absorption. Because of
the reduced burden on the
federal budget, the program
could eventually create new
refugee slots — although the
bill does not immediately
require any increase.
Refugees would have up to
four years to repay the loans;
repayments would not begin
until six months after their
resettlement, and the
repayment requirement
would not apply to refugees
under 18 years old and to the
elderly.
In the House, Rep. Stephen
Solarz (D-N.Y.) is moving
ahead with a somewhat diff-
erent program that would
create a revolving loan pro-
gram. Unlike the Metzen-
baum proposal, the Solarz
bill would mandate an im-
mediate increase in the
number of refugee slots.
But many Jewish activists
are worried about
"privatizing" the process of
funding refugee admissions,
a precedent that they sug-
gest• could come back to
haunt the Jewish commun-
ity in the years to come.
There are also concerns
that such proposals favor
well- off refugees — and that
they would force voluntary
organizations like BIAS to
serve as collection agencies.
Howard Metzenbaum:
Refugees repay.
And some Soviet Jewry ac-
tivists worry that any at-
tempt to revamp the im-
migration and refugee
system would open the doors
to legislators who have
taken a highly restrictive
view of the entire process.
And underneath it all is
steady pressure from Israel
against any changes in U.S.
policy which would make it
easier for Soviet Jews to get
into this country.
"It's a tough call," said
Rick Swartz, a leading im-
migration and refugee con-
sultant in Washington.
"You have the direct flights
problem, and pogroms in the
wind. Why not have some
other option of bringing peo-
ple in? If everything else was
equal, and if the only way to
pull more people out is
through a loan program,
wouldn't it be better to ac-
cept an imperfect loan pro-
gram, and forget about
precedents?"
On the other hand, Swartz
said, concerns about
privatizing the refugee fun-
ding process are legitimate.
Supplemental Aid Bill
Slowness Can Hurt HIAS
Rudy Boschwitz:
First letter.
avoid an all-out tussle bet-
ween Congress and the
White House on the
Jerusalem question. At the
same time, ALPAC has been
urging individual legislators
to express their concerns to
administration officials in
private.
Nothing is ever simple in
Congress. A case in point is
the critical supplemental
appropriations bill for fed-
eral refugee programs.
The bill, which would pro-
vide some $70 million to deal
with the fact that funds ap-
propriated for the current
fiscal year have already run
out, has little opposition in
Congress. And after vigor-
ous lobbying, the ad-
ministration has put its
stamp of approval on the
bill.
Still, the bill is moving at a
snail's pace — a serious prob-
lem, since agencies like the
Hebrew Immigrant Aid
Society are depending on the
money to replenish drained
bank accounts.
Originally, promoters of
the bill hoped to tack it.on to
the giant Panama aid
package. But that measure
is bogged down.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
21
ATI•NAL
Activists' Dilemma:
The Child-Care Bill