Reagan Signs Money Bill; Mideast, Contras Benefit

President Reagan signed a $14.6-billion supplemental spending bill Friday for fiscal 1985, including $2.25 billion in military and humanitarian aid programs for the Mideast and renewed support for guerrillas fighting the Sandinista government of Nicaragua.

Although nearly $10 billion of the outlay was approved for domestic programs, the congressional battle over the measure was waged mainly on foreign aid and national security measures, and the President expressed general satisfaction with the outcome as he signed the bill.

“It will contribute significantly to our ability to provide urgently required aid to our friends in the Middle East and will support our efforts to bring peace to the region,” Reagan said in a statement released by the White House press office here, where the President is vacationing at his mountaintop ranch.

He particularly cited the $1.5 billion in economic aid for Israel, $500 million for Egypt and $250 million for Jordan. Those countries “have a vital role to play if there is to be peace in the Middle East,” he said.

The appropriations supplement was one of four pieces of legislation signed by the President as he continued a vacation routine, mixing White House paper work with relaxation at his ranch near here.

The bill includes a $27 million in non-lethal assistance to the anti-Sandinista contras, thus renewing U.S. support to Nicaraguan rebels after a year’s interruption.

Though Reagan pointed to the renewed support as a bipartisan triumph for the Administration’s Nicaraguan policy, he characterized the $27 million as too modest and objected to a provision preventing the Defense Department and the Central Intelligence Agency from administering the program.

“This is an important element in our overall effort to assist neighboring countries to defend themselves against Nicaraguan attack and subversion,” he said. “Unfortunately, the provision unduly and unnecessarily restricts efficient management and administration of the program.”

Besides the outlay for the Middle East and the new infusion of support for the contras, the foreign assistance programs included $15 million in humanitarian aid for the rebels fighting against Soviet forces in Afghanistan and shifted most assistance to the Philippine government of President Ferdinand E. Marcos from military toward humanitarian aid.