New Vote Will Give Non-Military Aid to Contras, House Majority Leader Predicts

House Majority Leader Jim Wright (D-Tex.) predicted Wednesday that the House soon will reverse itself and vote to provide non-military aid to the Nicaraguan rebels because Democrats have grown fearful of being portrayed as supporters of that country’s leftist regime.

Speaking at a breakfast meeting with reporters, Wright said he expects the Democratic-controlled House to enact a Republican-sponsored measure providing aid to the anti-Sandinista rebels, known as contras , similar to one that was defeated by only two votes last month. But he added that the Democrats will try to amend the measure to make certain that none of the money is spent for military or paramilitary purposes.

Republican leaders have indicated that they will strongly oppose any effort by the Democrats to extend the existing statutory ban on military aid to the contras, which expires Sept. 30.

A State Department official said the Administration is preparing legislative options for President Reagan to review when he returns Friday from his 10-day visit to Europe.

House Minority Leader Robert H. Michel (R-Ill.), author of the earlier Republican proposal that failed, is expected to offer a new version later this week. But unlike his earlier plan to provide $14 million in aid to the contras in the current fiscal year, sources said, his new proposal may seek a larger amount for both fiscal 1985 and 1986.

The President has requested $28 million in aid for the contras in fiscal 1986.

Ortega Move Feared

Wright, a longtime critic of Nicaragua’s Sandinista government, said the issue is being reconsidered because many moderate and conservative House Democrats who previously voted against aid to the contras are worried that they will be blamed if Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega decides to invade a neighboring country.

“This darn fool Ortega, with all of his funny ideas, is liable to launch an attack on another country and then we would look bad for not being able to foresee his evil design,” Wright said. “It is based on a fear of what he might do.”

Some Democrats who helped defeat Reagan’s aid request when it came before the House last month were particularly upset that Ortega traveled to Moscow the day after the vote to request $200 million in Soviet aid. Ortega’s trip “embarrassed” the Democrats, Speaker Thomas P. (Tip) O’Neill Jr. (D-Mass.) acknowledged.

On Wednesday, White House Communications Director Patrick J. Buchanan sought to make the situation even more uncomfortable for the Democrats by declaring: “The Speaker and the House Democrats, I think, have an obligation to tell the American people why they trusted the words of Nicaraguan Communists over the President of the United States--why they put faith in the promises of a man who heads a regime that is admittedly Marxist-Leninist.”

Camp in Honduras

O’Neill countered by pointing out that foreign leaders who have met with Reagan during his current European trip have also criticized the Administration’s policy toward Nicaragua, including the economic sanctions announced late last week.

Wright’s comments appeared to have been inspired by reports that Sandinista troops attacked the contras’ main camp in Honduras just across Nicaragua’s northern border last weekend. A State Department official said U.S. intelligence reports indicated that at least 200 Nicaraguan soldiers crossed the border and spent “a good part of a day” inside Honduras in the battle around the contras’ headquarters of Las Vegas.

“Our information is that there are lots of bodies down there, both contras and Sandinistas, but we don’t have an accurate count,” the official said.

Meanwhile, Democratic leaders appeared to hold out little hope that they could come up with a workable alternative to the Republican aid bill that would be acceptable to the House. “The Democrats don’t have a strategy because we don’t know what we will be faced with,” said one House Democratic aide who spoke on condition that he not be identified.

Democratic Alternatives

When the issue was last debated, Democratic leaders put forth an alternative sponsored by Reps. Michael D. Barnes (D-Md.) and Lee H. Hamilton (D-Ind.) that would have given humanitarian assistance to Nicaraguan refugees--but not to the contras. This time, however, Wright indicated that he expects the House to vote for direct aid to the contras.

In the interim, several Democratic alternatives have been drafted, including one introduced Wednesday by Rep. Dave McCurdy (D-Okla.) that would provide humanitarian aid directly to the contras through the Agency for International Development. Although the Administration originally wanted to funnel the money through the CIA, the proposal was amended last month by House Republicans to make AID the donor agency.

The Republicans are expected to offer their new proposal as an amendment to one of several spending measures that will come before that chamber over the next few weeks.