Male Call at the Post Office

Draft registration bill survives a Senate filibuster

Oregon Senator Mark Hatfield vowed to use every stalling technique the Senate's quaint rules would permit. At 3:30 a.m. Alaska Republican Ted Stevens read monotonously from a lengthy Senate committee report. At 4 a.m. Connecticut Republican Lowell Weicker worked himself into a spirited and largely irrelevant plea for the U.S. to become independent of foreign oil. But each Senator spoke only to a nearly empty chamber. Their colleagues dozed on cots in darkened conference rooms or in their otherwise vacant offices. This was the Senate's first all-night filibuster since 1978, an effort to prevent the registration of some 4 million 19-and 20-year-old youths for possible future drafting.

Hatfield's determined drive to block draft registration had been doomed from the start. Although he was supported by an unusual mixture of conservatives and liberals from both parties, the Senate clearly was ready to approve the plan proposed by President Carter last January, just after Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan. The House had passed the necessary funding by a vote of 219 to 180. After two days of what turned out to be a six-day filibuster, Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd called for a vote to invoke cloture, limiting further debate to 100 hours. Byrd was surprised that it passed immediately, 62 to 32.

Byrd and Georgia Democrat Sam Nunn, a strong supporter of registration, then cleverly employed parliamentary maneuvers to exhaust Hatfield's delaying tactics. At one point, for example, Nunn proposed cutting the bill's funds by an insignificant $10,000, and his amendment passed. That technically changed the bill enough to render inoperative some 75 other amendments Hatfield had introduced in an effort to delay passage.

After Hatfield admitted defeat, the Senate passed the bill on a 58 to 34 vote. Almost as many Republicans (16) as Democrats (18) voted against it, blurring any campaign issue along party lines. Among the presidential candidates, Ronald Reagan, John Anderson and Ted Kennedy have all opposed the Carter plan. The American Civil Liberties Union said it intends to file a suit against the law, claiming it is unconstitutional since it does not apply equally to women. Carter had asked that women also be registered, but Congress rejected that.

The act provides $13.3 million to be used by the Selective Service, which still exists as an agency though it has been dormant since 1975, to carry out only the registration. If Carter or any successor wanted actually to draft anyone from the pool of young men to be registered, he would have to persuade Congress to pass a new law giving Selective Service that power. Selective Service officials expect to take five weeks to get the registration procedure worked out. It will thus probably begin in late July.

The law requires all young men born in 1960 or 1961 to sign up at local post offices, where they will give their name, address, date of birth, telephone and Social Security numbers. Beginning in January, all men must similarly register as they reach the age of 18. There is no provision for any physical examination or testing to determine whether anyone who registers would be fit for military service. Anyone who fails to register can be fined $10,000 or be imprisoned for five years.

One of the uncertainties is just how many young men will ignore the law. Hatfield complains that even if there is only a small resistance, like 2% of those required to register, the enforcement problem would be huge. Says he: "It is impossible to prosecute 80,000 noncompliant people." Nunn does not agree, and warns: "We shouldn't let the impression go out that young people are not willing to make the sacrifice to protect the national security of this country."

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