Top House Leaders Expect Close Vote on Contra Aid

Two top House leaders predicted today that President Reagan’s $100-million contra aid plan, fresh from a narrow Senate victory, will face another close vote when the House reconsiders its earlier rejection.

House Minority Leader Robert H. Michel (R-Ill.) said, “It’s certainly not a foregone conclusion that we’ll win when it comes back to us.”

“But I was sure happy to see it get through the Senate, although we all would have liked to see a larger margin” than the 53-47 victory for Reagan’s package, Michel said in a telephone interview from his Peoria office.

Rep. Thomas S. Foley (D-Wash.), the third-ranking Democrat in the House leadership, said he expects the House to “focus on a real compromise and not the cosmetic one that the Administration offered where the President really makes all the decisions.”

That compromise, approved by the GOP-controlled Senate on Thursday, delays delivery of lethal weapons to the U.S.-backed rebels for 90 days to boost the chances for negotiations with the Sandinista rulers of Nicaragua. (Story on Page 4.)

Michel said Reagan may pick up some House votes because “I sense there’s really some anxiety on the part of some of our colleagues who voted against us last time who I think want another shot and a chance to turn around their votes.”

“But it sure won’t be any walk-away,” he said. “I think the closeness of the votes in both chambers is really indicative of the way the country is split on this thing.”

The narrowness of Reagan’s victory in the Senate showed that he still has a fight on his hands. The House rejected the Reagan plan 222 to 210 a week ago, so Reagan must find some converts there if he is to prevail.

Foley was asked about Reagan’s assertion Thursday that reported Nicaraguan attacks on contra camps in Honduras amount to a “slap in the face” to House members who hoped their “no” vote would be seen as an attempt at reconciliation.

“That’s nonsense,” he replied. “As a matter of fact, the intelligence that we were given right after the incursion . . . was that the Sandinistas probably moved because they expected aid to come, not because the vote was against it in the House. That’s what we were told by State Department briefers.”