Congressional Conferees Reach Contra Aid Accord

Congressional conferees, resolving months of contention over U.S. support for anti-government guerrillas in Nicaragua, agreed Friday to provide $27 million in aid to the rebels after Senate Republicans abandoned President Reagan’s demand that the money be funneled through the CIA.

The agreement on the supplemental appropriation, on which final approval is expected from the Senate and House next week, will mean that U.S. funding--in the form of “non-lethal” aid--will be distributed to the rebels by international relief agencies through next March.

But Senate Republicans said the real victory was in the approval of any money this year for the rebels, known as contras --a move the House had rejected heatedly until opposition, largely from Democrats, began to crumble this spring.

The Senate negotiators said they decided to accede to House demands out of concern that if the deadlock had not been resolved, it might have jeopardized the entire supplemental aid measure, which provides funds to hundreds of federal aid programs through the end of this fiscal year. Contra aid had been the major stumbling block on the bill.

“I think the President won in the vote in the House, and there was no reason to endanger that,” said Assistant Senate Majority Leader Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), referring to House approval last month of the aid package. “The Senate wanted no amendments in disagreement. We wanted a bill that was clear.”

The way to the accord had been paved late Thursday when Senate negotiators discussing foreign aid bowed to House demands that neither the CIA nor the Pentagon should play any role in the distribution of aid to the contras.

“You don’t have to have four-star generals and guys with flying cloaks to administer $27 million,” Rep. Dante B. Fascell (D-Fla.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said at a news briefing Friday.

As agreed upon, the measure gives the President the discretion to choose which agency or organization should distribute the funds, with the two key exceptions. Fascell suggested that the International Red Cross and the Agency for International Development, among other relief agencies, would be capable of carrying out the project.

Concern Over Red Tape

The Administration, however, has feared that a distribution process administered by international agencies would be slowed by bureaucratic red tape, including restrictions against the hiring of foreign nationals.

Stevens tried Friday to persuade House conferees to give the President explicit authority to circumvent standard operating procedures to expedite delivery of the aid. But strong opposition from Democratic Reps. Edward P. Boland (D-Mass.) and Joseph P. Addabbo (D-N.Y.), blocked the move, arguing that it would be dangerous to grant the President such vague power.

“The CIA wants to get their finger in here any way it can, and we won’t buy it. . . .,” Addabbo charged. “That’s what this language is trying to do, get them indirectly involved.”

Stevens denied that he was trying to slip in a mechanism for CIA and Pentagon involvement. And he told reporters later that he believes the President may already have the authority to exempt the international agencies from the stringent rules in this case.

The House first rejected proposed aid to the contras but reversed itself after months of impassioned debate, approving in early June the compromise proposal that provided $27 million in aid but stipulated that the aid could not be used for military supplies. Two weeks later the Republican-controlled Senate, echoing White House wishes, voted for $38 million in aid with no restrictions on which agency could distribute it.

Aid in 3 Installments

Under the $27-million aid bill agreed upon by the conferees, $9 million can be sent to the contras on enactment of the measure, the next $9 million 90 days later and the remaining $9 million 90 days after that.

The “non-lethal” aid, sometimes characterized as “humanitarian” aid, is expected to include food, clothing, medical supplies and other non-military aid. But Stevens said Friday that such aid also could include trucks and other vehicles.

Some observers have contended that the distinction between military and non-military aid may be mostly semantic, arguing that the Nicaraguan rebels, relieved of the burden of buying food and clothing, will simply begin spending that money on military supplies from other sources.

Asked whether humanitarian aid could indeed serve military ends, Stevens said: “I take it that if you’re better fed, better clothed and have a roof over your head at night, you’re going to be a better soldier.”

Times staff writer Sara Fritz also contributed to this story.