Work Done

Last week the Congress also:

> Pushed ahead, in a House Judiciary Subcommittee and in the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Administration's voting-rights bill, toughening its provisions. The House subcommittee voted the measure out, eleven to one, after recommending that federal registrars be installed anywhere a local court confirms that discrimination exists. The Senate version, cleared for the floor by a twelve-to-four vote, would also broaden the measure, but by applying it automatically to areas where fewer than 25% of the eligible persons of any race are registered. This would catch five counties in Florida, seven in Arkansas, and an undetermined number in Virginia, Tennessee and Texas.

>Restored, in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, $115 million which the committee had, in a preliminary vote, cut out of military-assistance funds in the Administration's $3.38 billion foreign-aid-authorization bill.

> Agreed, in a Senate-House Conference Committee, to extend the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency for three years with a $10 million-a-year-budget ceiling.

> Passed in the House, 360 to 21, and sent to the Senate a bill permitting recipients of offensive mail to halt further delivery. Under the measure, anyone could return to his postmaster mail which the recipient deemed "lascivious, indecent, filthy, or vile," and have the post office notify the sender to discontinue the mailings. Federal courts could enforce the request.

> Approved, in the Senate Patents Subcommittee, the first increase in U.S. patent fees since 1932. The fee for applying for a patent would go from the present $30 to $65, for issuance of a patent from $30 to $100. According to Subcommittee Chairman John L. McClellan of Arkansas, the higher rates would raise U.S. Patent Office income from its present $8,900,000 a year to about $23.4 million.

> Voted, in the House and Senate Interior Committees, to spend $2,143,150 for establishing a national monument in Nebraska's agate fossil beds, named for the rich concentrations of prehistoric mammal traces that abound in the area.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.