May 1974June-July 1974
September 1974| May 1974 |
Home
Newsletters
June-July 1974 | September 1974 |
 CalendarPresident's Notes (Diane Hastert)Voters Service Reports (Gretel McLane)Trading Stamps and CouponsConvention '74 - SummaryLeague Notes31st National Convention Banquet Address (Henry Steele Commager)International Relations and Trade (Barbara Wiebenga)Membership (Nancy Guille) |
International Relations and TradeTo: All members LWVH From: Barbara Wiebenga Re: Trade Legislation Update The Committee on IR & Trade received the following letter from Senator Daniel K. Inouye, Chairman Subcommittee on Foreign Commerce and Tourism:
The Senate Committee on Finance has just completed hearings on the Trade Reform Act of 1973, HR10710 which the House passed last December, The League supported this bill in the ;douse and we will continue to work for its passage in the Senate. But Our task will be formidable. The Finance Committee has not shown great interest in this bill--hearings were scheduled grudgingly and attended sparsely. Other legislation -energy, pension reform, tax reform-is vying with trade for the Committee's attention and time is running out, With the possibility of a presidential impeachment hanging over the congressional calendar and elections ahead in the Fall, the prognosis for the trade bill is grim, LWVUS (Memorandum)
GREAT DECISONS *1974 Capsule Report: President vs, Congress "How should Foreign Policy Powers be Shared?",.,...„ With the bombing of Cambodia last spring, the President was accused of making the ultimate decision in foreign affairs -- the declaration of war----without approval of Congress, Others said Congress abdicated their power. The struggle between the President and Congress is not new and power has swung between the two, Since WW II all Presidents have increased their power, often with Congressional consent. Now, after Vietnam and Watergate, the key word is balance. In our democratic form of government separation of powers and checks and balances are vital. "The Constitution: an invitation to struggle?' Under the constitution, Article II, the President has the power to make treaties, appoint ambassadors. He is Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, can repel invasion and, in rare cases, protect American lives abroad, Congress has been given much more poser: to wage and end war, to raise and support armies, to provide and maintain a navy, to organize the militia, to regulate foreign commerce to provide for the common defense, to make appropriations for defense (UN, State Dept„ etc), to make all laws necessary to carry out powers vested in government, Our Constitution has been called “all sail and no anchor". Because of oversights or lack of clarity it is often difficult to tell "who had sail and who had rudder' and 'where is command". To function effectively, each branch demands the cooperation of the other, In the last 40. years, strong Presidents have been able to tip the balance away from Congress. President Truman sought a mandate from the UN with Congressional approval after the fact in the Korean action. In our history, Presidents have asserted their right to send troops abroad in L25 instances without declaration of However, Raoul Berger, Constitutional scholar of Harvard Law School says "no residual war power can be wrung from the 'Executive power', 'What was not given (in the Constitution) was meant to be withheld,' 'Emergency may compel...(the Pres.), writes Schlesinger, 'to abandon the rule in favor of the exception; but he must not pretend that the exception is the rule.' He feels that the Vietnam war was unjustified. There was no emergency. A very good reason to reinvigorate the unwritten checks. Only Congress can prevent power from slipping through its fingers. 'Executive privilege' is another power problem. It has been used from Pres. Washington to Nixon to preserve confidentiality of executive operations, 'Executive Agreements', too, have been made extensively in the foreign affairs field without Congressional consent. Congress has the power to restore the constitutional balance -for the last two decades it has largely failed to do its job. Congressional retreat seems to be over in the wake of Watergate, although the ultimate outcome is in doubt.
Notice -- This is not a LWVUS or LWVH position- Anyone interested in promoting the Moratorium on Whaling set by the UNA and/or the International Whaling Commission (to protect the Whale as a species, it is being exploited by Japan and Russia for profit), please write your protest to: Ambassador Takeshi Yasukawa
or Ambassador Anatole Dobrynin
You may also call the Consulate of Japan ---Honolulu 536-2226 P.S. --boycott of Japanese goods is an additional action that can be taken. B. Wiebenga, Chairman IR&T Trade. Barbara Wiebenga |
| May 1974 | Top Home Newsletters | September 1974 |