Internment camps to be preserved

WASHINGTON (AP) — Notorious internment camps where Japanese-Americans were kept behind barbed wire during World War II will be preserved as stark reminders of how the United States turned on some of its citizens in a time of fear.

As one of its last acts, the Republican-led Congress on Tuesday sent President Bush legislation establishing a $38 million program of National Park Service grants to restore and pay for research at 10 camps where the government sent people of Japanese descent after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

On another issue, the House postponed a showdown vote on opening 8 million more acres in the Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas drilling. Supporters were worried about achieving the two-thirds majority needed to pass the measure under rules allowing little debate. They said they might make another attempt before week's end using different rules that allow broader debate but require only a simple majority.

Lawmakers returned Tuesday for only four days of work before Republicans call it quits after running Congress for 12 years. Democrats will control both houses for the first time since 1994 when a new Congress reflecting last month's election starts up in January.

Republicans already have left the biggest unfinished tasks of 2006 — approving budgets for most federal agencies — to their successors.

Leaders in both parties, however, still have hopes of renewing three popular tax breaks before leaving town. They include $4,000 deductions for college students, a sales tax credit in states without their own income taxes and business research and development credits. All expired last December.

Late Tuesday, House Ways and Means and Senate Finance Committee negotiators were still working out final details of the tax bill.

But the Ways and Means panel did complete for floor action a comprehensive trade bill that grants permanent trade relations with Vietnam. The House rejected the Vietnam bill last month under a procedure requiring a two-thirds majority, but it is strongly backed by the White House.

The trade package also extends programs offering lower duties for Andean nations and promotes apparel industries in Haiti and sub-Saharan Africa. Lawmakers from textile states have voiced concerns that the bills, which allow some transshipments from China and other third countries, will result in further losses to American producers.

In other action as Congress moved toward adjourning for the year by week's end: