127. Editorial Note
On January 26, 1965, the House of Representatives adopted by a vote of 204 to 177 an amendment to an appropriation bill, H.J. Res. 234, that would have denied any further sale of agricultural products to the United Arab Republic under Title I of Public Law 480 during fiscal year 1965. On January 27, Rusk met with members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and other interested Senators in executive session to discuss administration policy toward the United Arab Republic and to urge that the Senate drop the provision or give the President discretion in dealing with the last portion of the 3-year program of P.L. 480 assistance to the United Arab Republic established under a U.S.-UAR agreement of October 1962. (Executive Sessions of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Together with Joint Sessions with the Senate Armed Services Committee (Historical Series), Volume XVII, Eighty-ninth Congress, First Session, 1965 (Washington, 1990), pages 239–268) For the text of the agreement signed October 8, 1962, see 13 UST 2166.
On February 3, the Senate adopted by a vote of 44 to 38 a version giving the President the discretion Rusk had requested. At a news conference on February 4, President Johnson urged Congress to adopt the Senate version, declaring it “of the highest importance” that final legislation should have the flexibility it provided. (Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1965, Book I, page 132) In conference, the House accepted the Senate version. The bill as enacted forbade the export of agricultural commodities to the United Arab Republic under Title I in fiscal year 1965 unless such exports were necessary to carry out the 1962 agreement and the President determined that the financing of such exports was in the national interest. (Public Law 89–2, signed February 11, 1965; 79 Stat. 4)