The 100th anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s birth is just around the corner. Not surprisingly, Republicans are looking to pass legislation commemorating the centennial of his birth.But Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) is standing in their way.
The Wisconsin Democrat says his refusal to let the Reagan bill move to a vote in the full Senate has nothing to do with maligning President Reagan. Instead, he says he’s trying to have a “noncontroversial” measure passed.
Feingold wants to attach an amendment to the bill that would create two commissions to examine the internment and restrictions of German and Italian Americans and Jewish refugees during World War II. A similar measure passed the Senate in 2007 but failed when included in a larger immigration bill.“Sen. Feingold has no interest in blocking this bill,” a Feingold spokesman told Roll Call’s Jackie Kucinich in Tuesday editions. “He wants to offer an amendment to it, but that request was blocked by a Republican senator.”
The Reagan bill, which passed the House 371-19, would create a bipartisan commission to celebrate the iconic Republican president’s 100th birthday. The 40th president died in 2004 at the age of 93; his 100th birthday would have occurred in 2011.
A spokesman for a Republican senator said that Feingold should go through the regular committee process to get his commission approved.
“It should have no problem passing through the Judiciary Committee where Democrats have a 12-seat majority,” Ryan Patmintra, a spokesman for Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), told Kucinich. “Sen. Feingold has decided to hold this bill hostage.”
Kyl rejected a request by Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) to attach Feingold’s Wartime Treatment Study Act to the Reagan bill on May 11.
In a speech about his amendment in 2007, Feingold lauded the US’ investigation of the treatment of Japanese Americans, many of whom were forced into internment camps during World War II. He said that Congress should give the same treatment to others who were also deprived of their rights during the war.
“That same respect has not been shown to the many German Americans, Italian Americans, and European Latin Americans who were taken from their homes, subjected to curfews, limited in their travel, deprived of their personal property, and, in the worst cases, placed in internment camps,” Feingold said.
“Most Americans are probably unaware that during World War II, the U.S. Government designated more than 600,000 Italian-born and 300,000 German -born U.S. resident aliens and their families as ‘enemy aliens,’” Feingold added. “Approximately 11,000 ethnic Germans, 3,200 ethnic Italians, and scores of Bulgarians, Hungarians, Romanians, or other European Americans living in America were taken from their homes and placed in internment camps. Some even remained interned for up to 3 years after the war ended. Unknown numbers of German Americans, Italian Americans, and other European Americans had their property confiscated or their travel restricted, or lived under curfews.”
The 2007 amendment was introduced along with Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA).
