Congress Bars Use of CIA’s Secret Funds to Supplement Aid to Nicaraguan Rebels

Even as Congress moves toward approving $100 million for the Nicaraguan rebels, opponents of the aid have succeeded in barring President Reagan from dipping into secret, unrestricted CIA funds to supplement the assistance program.

The restriction on CIA funds was agreed to without fanfare earlier this week by House-Senate negotiators as part of the fiscal 1987 budget for the intelligence agencies, which since has been approved by the House and is expected to be adopted finally by the Senate next week.

The agreement was a victory of sorts for House Democrats, who earlier lost their nearly three-year battle to deprive the Nicaraguan rebels of any U.S. military assistance. The restriction on CIA funds was a part of the House-passed version of the bill but was not included in the measure as it originally passed the Republican-controlled Senate.

A Touchy Issue

Sen. David Durenberger (R-Minn.), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said that, while White House officials opposed the restriction, it was not strenuously challenged by Senate members because the expenditure of these funds by the CIA in Central America has always been a touchy issue with House Democrats.

“I suspect the Administration wanted to make an issue of it, but they feared it would open up the whole Central American debate again,” said Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Congress has been battling over the expenditure of secret CIA funds in Central America since fiscal 1983, when House Democrats first succeeded in enacting the restriction, known as the Boland Amendment for its author, Rep. Edward P. Boland (D-Mass.). The Boland Amendment has survived in one form or another ever since, despite numerous efforts by the Administration to do away with it.

Military Aid Halted

In 1984, after learning that the CIA was involved in the mining of Nicaraguan harbors, Congress also halted military aid to the rebels and barred any CIA involvement in the management of a humanitarian aid program that was later put in its place.

Earlier this year, Administration officials let it be known that they intended to capitalize on growing congressional support for the contras, as the rebels are called, by getting rid of all restrictions on CIA involvement in the war in Central America. They succeeded, in part, when the House and Senate agreed earlier this year to permit the CIA to resume management of the $100-million aid package in fiscal 1987.

But Rep. Lee H. Hamilton (R-Ind.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and a long-time foe of contras aid, continued to oppose the expenditure of secret, unrestricted CIA funds, known as “contingency” funds, in Central America and he insisted on retaining the restriction in the intelligence agencies budget.

While Hamilton succeeded, he and other contras aid opponents concede that it could be a hollow victory. “There are still a lot of ways that the Administration can augment the $100 million,” Sen. Leahy said.

‘Billions of Dollars’

Hamilton asserted that the Administration is actually spending “billions of dollars” to help the contras. He noted that the Defense Department is spending huge sums on operations in Honduras, the staging area for the contras.

“You have American military maneuvers in the Gulf (of Honduras); you have maneuvers in Honduras, . . . (and) we have suddenly shifted a huge number of our intelligence assets to Central America at very heavy expense,” he said. “If you begin to tote all this up, you get into big bucks.”

Hamilton noted that Administration officials contend none of these expenses are associated with the war in Nicaragua. “I argue that’s baloney,” he added. “None of those costs would be incurred unless Nicaragua was there.”

While both the House and the Senate have approved the military aid package for the contras, it has not been passed in final form and is expected to be a part of an omnibus spending bill approved shortly before adjournment in mid-October.