House Democrats Offer to Delay Showdown on Arms

House Democrats, accused by President Reagan of trying to undermine U.S.-Soviet arms talks, offered Monday to delay a threatened showdown with Reagan over arms control until after he meets with Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev this weekend.

House Majority Leader Jim Wright (D-Tex.) said that Democrats are willing to delay resolving their arms control differences with Reagan until early next year if it “would allow him (Reagan) to go to the summit without feeling he had been repudiated publicly by Congress.”

The White House did not immediately respond to the offer, which would include some conditions that the Administration might find objectionable--including a pledge by the President that he would not violate terms of the 1979 strategic arms limitation treaty, as expected, later this year.

At issue between Reagan and the Democrats are four provisions, passed by the House earlier this year as part of a defense spending bill, that are designed to alter the President’s arms control policy. They would continue the current ban on anti-satellite weapons testing, restrict chemical weapons production, impose a nuclear test ban and require Reagan to continue to observe the limits on strategic weapons established in the unratified SALT II treaty.

The proposed test ban has been the most controversial of these provisions because it coincides with Gorbachev’s decision to renew the existing Soviet ban on testing.

Until now, House Democrats have been demanding that the President and the GOP-controlled Senate agree to these provisions in exchange for Democratic support of an omnibus spending bill needed to keep the government operating beyond Wednesday.

The President, in a radio speech Saturday, pledged to veto any bill that came to his desk with these provisions attached. Noting that the arms control issues also are central to U.S.-Soviet talks, he warned, “I cannot afford to have my hands tied in our discussions.”

Although terms of Wright’s proposed compromise were still being discussed Monday, the Democrats generally were offering to wait until next February or March to resolve the four arms control issues with Reagan. Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.), a key figure in House-Senate negotiations on the defense spending bill, described it as “the punt option.”

The proposed delay was an implicit acknowledgement on the part of the House Democratic leadership that Reagan’s hastily scheduled meeting with Gorbachev in Iceland this weekend has weakened their hand in a confrontation with the Senate and the White House on these issues. The Reagan-Gorbachev meeting is expected to be a prelude to a full-fledged summit either later this year or early next year.

“We were holding all the high cards until (the Iceland meeting) was announced, and now we’ve got a mixed hand,” said a House Democratic aide. “But it’s still a pretty good hand.”

In exchange for their proposed delay in resolving the arms control issues, House Democrats said they plan to withhold some funding for at least one of the Administration’s pet defense projects, such as Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative, the so-called “Star Wars” space-based missile defense system.

Funding for the program would expire next February or March, and the Democrats could then condition any further money on Reagan’s approval of their arms control provisions.

But Reagan is expected to officially resist any new restrictions on funding for the Strategic Defense Initiative--because the Soviets also are seeking to persuade him to abandon SDI development in exchange for a cutback in strategic arms.

Likewise, Democrats said that in exchange for the delay, the President would have to pledge not to resume anti-satellite weapons testing or to violate the 1979 arms treaty in the interim. Reagan already has indicated that he intends to abandon the treaty later this year when the United States equips its 131st B-52 bomber with cruise missiles.

Democrats Praised

Although Reagan so far has rejected any compromise, Warner noted that White House officials were willing to discuss the “punt option.” He also praised the Democrats for their willingness to compromise with the President.

“I think there’s good forward movement on it,” he said. “I think there’s a real conscientious spirit to lift these issues above partisan politics.”

At the same time, some House Democrats involved in the deliberations disagreed with the strategy as outlined by Wright. Reps. Norman D. Dicks (D-Wash.) and Les AuCoin (D-Ore.) argued that the matter should be settled before Reagan’s meeting with Gorbachev this weekend.

“When the President comes back from the summit, he’s going to be enhanced,” said Dicks. “From a tactical point of view, it makes more sense for us to settle it now.”

Dicks also denied that the arms control provisions passed by the House would tie the President’s hands in talks with the Soviets. “What we’re doing with these amendments makes it more possible for an agreement,” he said. “We are improving the atmosphere because what we’re doing is exercising restraint.”