
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 20, 1990                   TAG: 9006200280
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: BEDFORD/FRANKLIN 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

HOUSE TO VOTE ON FLAG AMENDMENT

The House Judiciary Committee voted narrowly Tuesday to send a constitutional amendment protecting the flag to the House floor for a vote, as an Associated Press survey showed the measure short of the support needed to pass Congress.

The 19-17 committee vote set the stage for a showdown in the House, possibly as early as this week.

Virginia Rep. French Slaughter Jr., R-Culpeper, voted in favor of sending the bill to the floor, and Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, voted against it.

"The close vote . . . indicates that it's going to be a fairly close vote on the floor," said Rep. Jack Brooks, D-Texas, the committee chairman.

The AP survey said as much, and indicated that uncommitted Democrats will play a large role in determining the fate of the amendment.

In the House, supporters and those leaning in favor outnumbered opponents 255-115, with 289 votes required for passage, the survey showed. Of the 63 who were undecided or had no known position, 53 were Democrats.

The survey found 58 senators were either committed to or leaning toward the amendment pushed by President Bush, leaving it nine short of the 67 needed to pass.

Twenty-four Democrats and four Republicans were either committed or leaning against supporting the amendment.

The top Democratic leadership in the House and Senate are vehemently opposed to the amendment, but a vote against it is seen by Democrats and Republicans alike as risky business in an election year.

Only a week ago, a Judiciary subcommittee cleared the amendment, but by an unfavorable 5-3 vote that carried a recommendation against passage. The full Judiciary Committee voted Tuesday to move the amendment to the House floor but took no stand for or against passage.

Earlier Tuesday, Democratic opponents failed to get an adverse recommendation, and supporters failed to get a favorable recommendation.

At Brooks' urging, the panel voted on sending the amendment forward with no recommendation.

A vote on the amendment could come as early as Thursday in the House and by the Fourth of July in the Senate.

The Democratic leadership, which sees the amendment as weakening the First Amendment, is looking for votes to block the measure among 18 undecided senators, 15 of whom are Democrats. They include Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, who last year wrote the law the Supreme Court struck down June 11.

Thirty-eight Republicans said they would vote yes and three are undecided.

The four Republican senators opposed to the amendment are John Chafee of Rhode Island, John Danforth of Missouri, Gordon Humphrey of New Hampshire and Bob Packwood of Oregon.

by CNB