News stories from Saturday February 22, 1975

Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:

White House economic officials view as basically acceptable the $21.3 billion tax-cut bill approved by the House Ways and Means Committee last week. President Ford, despite a few reservations, is likely to sign the bill if It is enacted. The White House and Capitol Hill are also moving closer toward common ground on a basic energy policy, although serious differences remain to be resolved, administration officials said. Thus, despite indications of confrontation, the President and Congress may be struggling toward an accommodation that would permit quicker than expected action comprehensive and economic and energy programs. [New York Times] After a slow and ponderous transition over the past six months, the shape and character of the Ford administration finally has emerged. The way in which the executive branch operates has changed drastically. Mr. Ford appears to have gone 180 degrees from the highly centralized, tightly controlled system that existed at the height of President Nixon's power to the more traditional one of dispersed authority, under which cabinet members are permitted to identify with and speak for their constituencies. [New York Times] The A.F.L.-C.I.O. issued a detailed study criticizing the way the Occupational Safety and Health Act had been implemented and calling for congressional action to strengthen the law and ensure its full enforcement. The federation's Executive Council said that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration had not received sufficient funds to administer the law properly, that its staff had been inadequate and that safety standards had not been properly established or enforced. [New York Times] Senator Edward Kennedy proposed legislation today that would provide a six-month moratorium on arms sales to Persian Gulf states while the administration and Congress reassess Americans arms policy in the region. In remarks inserted in the record at a brief Senate session in which he introduced the bill, Mr. Kennedy expressed "deep concern over the massive and apparently indiscriminate arms sales we have been making to countries of the Persian Gulf." His proposal, according to congressional aides, reflects growing restiveness on Capitol Hill about the magnitude of sales of arms and military services to Persian Gulf states. [New York Times] The Ford administration plans this week to complete its review of a request by the military government of Ethiopia for $30 million in munitions and will probably decide to send some supplies, a United States official said. The request was made early this month to Secretary of State Kissinger and repeated several times with some urgency, the official said. The administration has been reluctant to comply. [New York Times] Ethiopia's ruling military junta announced that government troops had killed 2,321 Eritrean guerrillas and that 83 government soldiers had been killed in three weeks of fighting in Eritrea, the northernmost province of Ethiopia. Civilian deaths totaled 124 and 324 guerrillas had been captured by government troops, the announcement said. It was the first official announcement of casualties by either side. [New York Times]