President Nixon muttered a bit about vetoing the Higher Education bill, but in the end he held his nose and signed it. Actually, he was wrought up about the wrong thing. He dislikes the antibusing language in the legislation. He says it is vague and of uncertain force. (He knows something about that sort of thing: His own antibusing program is a paradigm of uncertain effectiveness.) In fact, the only thing certain about it is that it is at a standstill in the brackish legislative waters.
The fact that Mr. Nixon chose to frame his antibusing program in terms of a “moratorium” on new busing—a “moratorium” of dubious constitutionality—rather than in support of one of the unambiguous antibusing constitutional amendments currently before Congress indicates that he is probably anxious to keep the busing issue alive. When schools reopen this fall, busing begins again and the campaign heats up, the President can complain that Congress has not acted decisively on the issue. One of the reasons the President gave for not supporting a constitutional amendment is that the amending process takes too long. But his own proposals were sent to Congress four months ago. The last constitutional amendment— lowering the voting age—whizzed through Congress and ratification by the states in less than three months. And there is a lot more clamor for an end to busing than there was for a lower voting age.
Comments