From: jwh3@po.CWRU.Edu (Junwei W. Hou)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.china
Subject: The Bill and the Oct. 2 Adjournment Date
Date: 7 Sep 1992 19:16:40 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA)
NNTP-Posting-Host: thor.ins.cwru.edu


SJ Q&A (September 7, 1992) (c)

The Bill and the Oct. 2 Adjournment Date.
******************************************** 
     As the Labor Day weekend ends, the Congress will resume its
legislative activities on Tuesday.  The Chinese Student Protection
Act (S. 1216), as amended, will be sent to the Senate for
concurrence within days after the House resumes its schedule.  From
that on, the amended S. 1216 is to be considered by the Senate,
and, if the concurrence is reached, will be cleared for the
President's signature.   All of these must be accomplished by Oct.
2, the targeted date for the Congress adjournment.  This post will
focus on explaining the remaining steps of the legislative process
and, considering the existence of a remote possibility that new
amendments be introduced in the Senate, some relevant issues which
have been among the primary concerns of the interested Chinese
students.   It is my hope that the interested Chinese students keep
on the lobbying efforts, which have been so impressive and
effective, to secure a victory.

1. The Senate

      The Chinese Student Protection Act of 1992 has been enjoying
a wide support from both the Democrats and Republicans in the
Congress.   Upon the return of the amended S. 1216 to the Senate,
the Senate has the option of accepting the House amendment,
accepting the House amendment with further amendments, or
disagreeing to the amendment and requesting a House-Senate
conference.  
     According to the post released by CCSA a few weeks ago, the
House amendment was to accommodate the request from the Justice
Department regarding the practical problem of administrating
the adjustment to permanent residence status of about 80,000
qualified PRC nationals.  Such amendment, which extends the
application period from 6 months in the previous version to 12
months, is of minor and non-controversial nature.  It is therefore
most likely that the Senate will agree to the amendment without a
conference and clear the bill for the president's signature.

2. The President

     Generally, after a bill has been given final approval by both
houses, the next step is for the secretary or clerk of the house of
origin to have an enrolled bill prepared and to certify the final
version of the bill.  After being signed by the Speaker of the
House and the president of the Senate, the bill then is sent to the
White House for the President's approval.  
  
     Under the Constitution, the president has 10 days (Sundays not
included) to act upon the bill after its presentation to him.  The
president may sign the bill into law.  If the president does not
want the bill to become law, he may veto it by returning it to the
house of origin without his signature and with a statement of his
objection.  When a bill is returned to Congress unsigned, Congress
may override the president's veto and enact the bill into law
without the president's signature by securing two-thirds vote of
those present and voting in both houses.  If the president does not
veto a bill within 10 days from the day he receives the bill, the
bill "shall" become a law, "unless the Congress in their
adjournment prevent its return, in which case it shall not be a
law."   The power of the president to disapprove a bill by mere
non-action is known as the "pocket veto".  The word "adjournment"
means the end of a Congress session or term when it is dissolved. 
There is no adjournment of Congress, for the purpose of a pocket
veto, when an originating house takes a recess during a session
with the chamber still organizes and the responsible officer of the
chamber is available to receive a returned bill from the president.


     S. 1216 is a well-drafted bill and has taken into
consideration of the concerns raised by the ranking Republicans in
the Senate and the Administration.  The bill furthers the
objectives of the U.S. government in observing its international
obligation of ensuring the safety of the PRC nationals and in
avoiding unnecessary disturbance to the existing immigration law. 
Therefore, S. 1216, if it remains to be in the current version, is
expected to be signed into law by the President.

3. Some relevant issues

     The forgoing analysis suggests that S. 1216 has a very good
chance to become a law.  However, there are some other problems
which desire a discussion.

     First, the time table.  The targeted adjournment date of this
Congress is October 2, a mere 3 week period for the bill to be
enacted by the end of this Congress term.  Some CSS are apparently
concerned about the time table with respect to the passage of the
bill.   These concerns largely premise on the possibility of a
presidential veto, or a pocket veto.  In my opinion, as discussed
above, it is highly unlikely that the President will veto the bill,
provided that no further alteration to the bill.  If no unexpected,
adverse event occurs, the Senate and the President should have
ample time to enact the bill into law.  Nonetheless, the relatively
short time remaining in this Congress term should alert the
interested Chinese students that there is no room for not devoting
their effort to monitor any possible alteration on the bill, or to
prevent something unexpected from happening.

     Secondly, the chances of the bill being enacted are largely
dependant on one issue, that is, whether S. 1216 is able to avoid
further controversial amendments from the Senate.  The attachment
of any controversial amendment may well destroy the promising
status of the bill and invite election-year partisan politics. 
Apparently, one of the candidates of such attachment is the Haitian
refugees issue.  It is my assessment that the Haitian refugees
issue will not play a significant role in the final stage of the
process.  This assessment is based on the following facts: 
     (1) To a certain extent, the administration's policy in
handling the Haitian boat people, having attracted fierce debates
at the beginning, seems to be working.  The INS has been continuing
the process of granting political asylum to the qualified Haitian
refugees, while the incidents of Haitians taking refuge through
boarding unseaworthy boats have declined.  Furthermore, both sides
of the Haitian government are undertaking negotiations for the
return of a civilian government.  The controversy of Bush's Haitian
refugees policy is likely to be resolved by the Supreme Court in
this fall.  It may not be necessary, under the current situation,
for the Congress to address the issue at this time.  
     (2) Even if the Congress wants to introduce new bills to
protect Haitian refugees, such bills will have little chance to be
enacted before a decision is made by the Supreme Court in October. 
The Senators from both parties know this fact quite well.  Unlike
House, Senate has a reputation of being more realistic and
politically maturer.  The new political incidents occurred in China
inevitably harden the sense of urgency among the lawmakers to
provide a workable and realistic protection measure for the Chinese
students in the U.S.  These factors are likely to be determinative
for the Senate to avoid introducing controversial amendments to S.
1216.  
     (3) It is not a common practice for the chamber of origin, in
this case, the Senate, to initiate controversial amendments to its
bill which has already passed another chamber (the House).  And the
Congress has a real need to get its job done, considering its
currently not-so-good image among the voters. 

     In summary, although the Haitian refugees may still be an
issue in the final stage of the process, it is unlikely to be
significant in regard to the passage of S. 1216.  However, it is
the lobby team in D.C. who are in a far better position, as they
are close to Congress, to assess the possibility of a controversial
amendment being attached to S. 1216.

     Finally, some of the interested Chinese students may recall
the fate of the Pelosi bill which was vetoed by the President three
years ago.  The main justification for the President's veto, at
least as what it was stated, was that the President insisted that
the executive branch have sufficient power to grant the kind of
protection to the Chinese students the Pelosi bill was designed to
provide, and therefore the bill was unnecessary and constituted an
act of Congressional intrusion to the President's authority.  
Unlike the Pelosi bill, S. 1216 addresses a different issue, the
adjustment to permanent status for certain PRC nationals, to which
the President has no appropriate authority under the Constitution
and the relevant immigration law.  Since the bill has gained wide
supports from the Republicans in both houses and has included a
provision authorizing the President not to materialize the benefit
of the bill if the human rights condition in China has improved to
the level that the safety return of the PRC nationals is ensured,
it is hardly conceivable that the President is to dig some
arbitrary justification to oppose the bill.


4. Some suggestions

     As you may have already noticed, the above analysis is
relatively optimistic.  Indeed, S. 1216 is very promising. 
However, such promising status is by no means an excuse not to
carrying on the lobbying efforts in the final phase of the process.

The closer the victory the harder one needs to work, for the only
way to enjoy the fruit of previous efforts is to secure a final
victory.  
     For the interested Chinese students, I still recommend that,
if possible, you send personalized messages to the senators and the
President, providing reasons and accurate information to the
lawmakers for their decision making.   It is a good thing for the
lawmakers to know the diverse thinking of the Chinese students with
respect to their personal plights and their potential commitments
to influence the modernization and democratization process in
China.  
     For the key members of the lobby team, it becomes very
critical, considering that only 3 weeks remain on the Congress
schedule, to be informed on a daily basis about the Congressional
activities relating to the bill and about the White House's opinion
on the bill.  It will be more than helpful to acquire more
knowledge and understanding about the issues and problems involved
in S. 1216, for such knowledge and understanding are the essence to
communicate with the lawmakers and to help them to resolve problems
relating to S. 1216 in the final stage of the process.  Moreover,
as I have observed, the communication between the interested
Chinese students and the lobby team seems to be in need of
improvement, not merely calling for donation.   

     The currently promising status of S. 1216 could mean nothing
if the interested Chinese students are to be sitting in idle.  The
active participation of the CSS, not just a couple of individual
key members of the lobby team, is a must.



                              Junwei Hou 

Newsgroups: soc.culture.china