House Panels Triple Aid for Africa Drought Areas

Two key House subcommittees on Wednesday approved up to $880 million in emergency supplemental aid for drought-stricken Africa, more than three times what the Reagan Administration requested.

The aid package, expected to be considered by the full House next week, includes two funds that would become available immediately--$480 million in emergency food aid, including money to transport the food to those who need it, and $175 million in disaster assistance and refugee aid.

Lawmakers also voted to put $225 million for food aid in reserve over the next two years, to be drawn on if the Administration deems it necessary.

The Administration originally suggested a $235-million package of supplemental aid that, together with funds already appropriated, would have brought the total U.S. contribution for famine relief in 20 African countries to more than $1 billion during the current fiscal year.

If more is needed, “we shall review the situation and take the appropriate action,” M. Peter McPherson, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, had told the agriculture subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday.

But both Democrats and Republicans in the House lobbied for additional money, arguing that millions of starving Africans could not afford to wait while funding requests worked their way through the legislative mill.

“We can compromise on some number, a political compromise that will make sense in some institutional way, but the real cost of (underestimating the ultimate need) is that we’d be jeopardizing hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of lives,” Rep. Howard Wolpe (D-Mich.), chairman of the Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Africa, testified.

The agriculture subcommittee ultimately approved the food aid by a unanimous voice vote, and the Appropriations Committee’s foreign operations panel agreed to the $175 million in non-food aid, also without dissent. The House Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday had approved authorizing the non-food assistance.

Some agriculture panel members feared that the popular bill, which is expected to be one of the first to reach the White House this congressional session, would become an attractive vehicle for unrelated legislation--particularly emergency agricultural credit being sought by farm-state congressmen. Last year’s supplemental African-aid bill became so loaded with controversial amendments that it was stalled for months before being approved.

To prevent a repeat of that delay, the agriculture subcommittee approved a separate bill that would make $1 billion in loan guarantees available to farmers through the Farmers Home Administration.

“If we are going to put a billion dollars in (famine) relief, we ought to provide $1 billion in relief to American farmers,” Rep. Jamie L. Whitten (D-Miss.), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said.