James Baker defended his international debt plan.

The Treasury secretary told a skeptical House Banking Committee that the Reagan Administration’s proposal for easing the international debt crisis is neither a bail-out of the commercial banks that hold most of the debt nor a U.S. promise to contribute more money to the World Bank. Baker proposed earlier this month that debtor nations be loaned an additional $29 billion provided they reform their economies. However, committee members emphasized that any request for more money would go nowhere in Congress as long as the U.S. economy seems to be in jeopardy.