Plans for Extra Foreign Aid Elicit Outrage in Congress : White House to Seek Additional $1.3 Billion While Domestic Programs Are Being Cut

Members of Congress expressed outrage Wednesday when they were told that the Reagan Administration plans to seek more than $1 billion in additional foreign aid at a time when domestic programs are being cut.

William Schneider, undersecretary of state for security assistance, touched off the controversy by telling members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during a closed hearing that the increased aid request will be part of the fiscal 1987 budget President Reagan intends to submit next week.

Schneider declined to disclose how much additional money the Administration would request, according to those who attended the hearing. But members of the committee later obtained a copy of a draft proposal from the State Department calling for a $1.3-billion increase in foreign assistance in fiscal 1987--including a 100% increase in military aid for the Philippines.

Panel Expresses Shock

A spokesman for Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said that committee members told Schneider they were shocked that the Administration would seek an increase in foreign aid at the same time that Congress is committed to trimming up to $70 billion from the federal budget under the Gramm-Rudman deficit-reduction law.

Lugar, according to his spokesman, told Schneider that the Administration would be “courting catastrophe” with such a request. He noted that Congress already has enacted a foreign aid budget for fiscal 1987 and suggested that the Administration would be risking cuts instead of increases if the aid program were reconsidered by Congress under Gramm-Rudman.

The fiscal 1987 foreign aid budget enacted last year provides $6.2 billion in military assistance and $6.2 billion in economic assistance to friendly goverments worldwide. Under Gramm-Rudman, which calls for across-the-board spending cuts if Congress cannot agree on a budget that reduces the deficit, military assistance would be cut by 7.5% and economic aid by 8%.

Chances ‘Slim to None’

Rep. Dante Fascell (D-Fla.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the chances that Congress would enact an increase in foreign assistance for fiscal 1987 are “slim to none.”

In addition to the anticipated request for increased foreign assistance, Fascell noted that the Administration also has let it be known that it is considering requests for $100 million in aid to the Nicaraguan rebels, an unspecified amount for Angolan rebel leader Jonas Savimbi and additional funds for combatting terrorism around the globe.

By some estimates, Fascell said, the Administration’s requests for additional foreign expenditures could add up to as much as $2.5 billion.

“If it’s not within the Gramm-Rudman targets, it’s going to be very difficult, because the question will be, ‘Where is the money coming from?’ ” Fascell said.

Prediction of Defeat

Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.), a leading member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, noted that foreign aid never was a popular program with Congress--even in the era of lower deficits--and predicted that a request for more money in fiscal 1987 would be defeated.

“I would not be too optimistic about an increase in foreign assistance,” he said. “There are too many variables, and if something has to go, that’s going to be it.”

But Hyde added that the proposal might get a better hearing if it included an increase in aid for Israel, which would be very popular among Israel’s supporters in Congress. According to the draft document from the State Department, Israel would get an additional $127 million.

Perhaps the most controversial item in the proposed Administration request calls for doubling military aid to the Phillippines, bringing it to $102 million. Rep. Stephen J. Solarz (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Asian and Pacific affairs, called it “premature” for the Administration to discuss such a proposal before the Philippine elections Feb. 7.

Hearings on Marcos Issue

Solarz, who has been conducting hearings into Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos’ alleged multimillion-dollar real estate holdings in the United States, said those allegations could affect foreign aid levels for the Philippines if Marcos is reelected.

“In my view,” he said, “Congress would certainly be justified--if Mr. Marcos is reelected--on insisting that Filipino funds sent out of the Philippines should be returned to the Philippines before we supply additional funds. We are not interested in a shell game where we put money in while someone else takes it out.”

At the State Department, officials declined to comment on the controversy.