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Thursday, May 8,' 1/75
TH M ICHIGAN UAILYT
Page Five
Bill proposes aid
for unemployed
LANSING (UPI) - Major
proposals increasing jobless
benefits for 440,000 laid-off
workers and providing medical
malpractice insurance protec-
tion for all Michigan doctors
could land on the governor's
desk today.
In addition, the House may
complete action on a bill re-
quiring mandatory prison sen-
tences for all felonies involv-
ing the use of a gun.
THE JOBLESS bill, which has'
put Gov. William Milliken in an
awkward political bind, would
raise weekly unemployment
benefits by as much as $30 for
workers idled less than 39
weeks.
It was reported out of the
Democratically controlled Sen-
ate Labor Committee yesterday_
and positioned for final floor ac-
tion. House speaker Bobby
Crim (D-Davison) said the
House would move swiftly on
Senate amendments once that
chamber completes action on
the bill.
The Senate adopted the mal-
practice measure on a 31-1 vote,
with House concurrence on tech-
nical amendments planned for
today. It would set up a state
malpractice pool to insure new
doctors and high-risk special-
ists unable to secure coverage
from individual companies.
WITH ENACTMENT
a foregone conclusion, S t a t e
Insurance Commissioner Daniel
Demlow said already has begun
gearing up to issue malprac-
tice policies by June 1 for doc-
tors facing loss of coverage.
The jobless benefit hike would
cost industry an estimated $120
million in increased tax outlays
and Republicans contended it
would bankrupt many small
businesses.
A last -minute effort by Mil-
liken aides to hold down the in-
crease for workers with no de-
pendents failed. Though oppos-
ed to the bill in its present
form, the prospect of Milliken
vetoing the bill was not seen
as likely.
THE GUN BILL would add a
mandatory two years to prison
sentences meted out in gun-re-
lated felonies in an attempt to
cut down on mandatory crime.
The added two-year term could
not be shortened by parole or
probation.
In other legislative action
yesterday:
-The Senate Judiciary Com-
mittee approved an often-side-
tracked proposal banning un-
fair and deceptive trade prac-
tices. However, the consumer
p r o t e c t i o n legislation
was amended to exempt insur-
ance companies, banks, credit
unions, utilities and major
health insurers.
THE HOUSE, by voice vote,
lamnched a committee investi-
gation to determine whether the
state's presidential primary
should be abolished. The mea-
sure is strongly opposed by
promoters of another presiden-
tial bid by Alabama Gov.
George Wallace, who scored a
victory in Michigan in 1972.
-The House sent to Milliken
on a 92-12 vote, legislation al-
lowing an injured worker to
chose his own physician after
10 days of care by a doctor of
his employer's choice. Under
Current law, treatment by the
employer's physician is requir-
ed for 60 days.
Just what the doctor ordered
Apparently, someone took this sign outside the emergency receiving ward at Lower Bucks
County Hospital Bristol, Pa. a bit too seriously. Despite the seemingly mangled condition
of the sign, it managed to recover.
House unit approves refugee aid plan
(Continued from Page 1)
finding jobs for the refugees, interviewing those at
three processing centers. The administration has esti-
mated that some 30,000 to 35,000 of 120,000 refugees
are heads of households who will need to find work.
IN OTHER developments in the capital:
-The Pentagon said the bodies of two Marines killed
in the insurgent bombardment of Saigon's airport were
left behind in the confusion of the final evacuation. A
spokesman said there is every probability that the
bodies of Cpl. Charles McMahon Jr. of Woburn, Mass.,
and Lance Cpl. Darwin L. Judge of Marshalltown,
Iowa, remained at the Seventh Day Adventist Hospital
in Saigon, and he said the State Department is trying
to arrange for return of the bodies.
-The Pentagon said the U.S. Embassy in the
Philippines has compiled a list of about 30 Americans
and 25 other nationals reported to have remained in
Saigon after its fall. A spokesman declined to make
the list public, saying it is being cross checked with
other lists. He also said so far 113,309 Indochina
refugees are being processed.
-ALSO ACCORDING to the Pentagon, the United
States removed more than 100 jet fighters, light
bombers and helicopters from Thailand before sus-
pending the operation at the request of the Thai govern-
ment. What was left behind was unserviceable, a
spokesman said.
-At a White House meeting, President Ford assured
Prime Minister Wallace Rowling of New Zealand that
the United States will keep its commitments in the
Pacific.
-Ford officially proclaimed yesterday as the last
day of the Vietnam war era for the purpose of entitling
members of the armed forces to some veterans'
benefits.
IN A RARE move, Chairman Peter Rodino, Jr. (D-
N.J.) of the House Judiciary Committee went before
the immigration subcommittee to urge it to act quickly
on refugee aid.
"When this country forgets its immigrant heritage
and turns its back on the oppressed and the homeless,
we will indeed have written 'fini' to the American
dream," Rodino said.
House Democratic Leader Thomas P. O'Neill Jr. of
Massachusetts had said a full House vote on the refugee
aid money is possible next week.
.AT ANOTHER House hearing, L. Dean Brown, who
leads an inter-agency task force on refugees, said a
computerized job bank had been established as a
means of helping to relocate some of the Vietnamese
coming to the United States.
Brown told the House International Affairs Com-
mittee that eventually all of the new refugees' names
would be entered in the computer.
He said officials administering the relocation pro-
gram have been instructed to avoid sending large num-
bers to areas of high unemployment.,
BROWN ALSO said no area of the country will be
overburdened with refugees.
Labor Secretary John Dunlop said in a news release
the computerized job bank maintained in Oklahoma
City by the federal-state public employment services
will be used "to see if there are jobs that could be
filled" by the refugees who are being processed at
Camp Pendleton, Calif., Fort Chaffee, Ark., and Eglin
Air Force Base, Fla.
After testifying at the House immigration subcom-
mittee hearing, James Wilson, deputy director of the
government's refugee program, told reporters that if
Congress has not appropriated more money after
present funds run out, "we will shake the bushes" to
see if more money can be found from among other
federal funds.
WILSON SAID the latest actual count of refugees
was 113,340, substantially less than the 124,399 the
administration had estimated Monday.
He said this was because of more precise counting
but said possibly 6,000 refugees are still at sea and
there is no estimate of how many Indochinese diplo-
mats around the world might wind up in the United
States.
Subcommittee members including Rep. Elizabeth
Holtzman (D-N.Y.) had objected M o n d a y to war
profiteers and criminals among the refugees being
admitted to this country and they won a pledge yes-
terday that criminals will be screened out and detained.
"We certainly do not intend to turn loose people
into the community if they have criminal backgrounds,"
said James Greene, deputy commissioner of the Im-
migration and Naturalization Service.