$576-Billion Spending Bill Approved by Senate : Largest Total Ever Includes First Military Aid in Three Years for Contras; Dispute Bars Signing

The Senate on Thursday approved a record $576-billion omnibus spending measure that would fund all government agencies in fiscal 1987 and provide for the first time in nearly three years the military aid to the Nicaraguan rebels that President Reagan has sought.

The mammoth House-passed measure cleared the Senate by voice vote but it did not immediately go to the President’s desk because of a number of lingering, minor disputes between the two chambers--including a bitter, parochial battle over whether the government should continue buying the T-46 trainer plane, manufactured in Long Island, N.Y.

A filibuster led by Sen. Alfonse M. D’Amato (R-N.Y.) seeking to preserve the T-46 threatened to delay final enactment of the bill and further postpone final adjournment of the 99th Congress.

Record Spending Bill

The legislation is the biggest single spending measure in the history of the country, amounting to more than the U.S. government spent in all the years from 1789 through 1949. The 1,200-page, eight-inch-thick bill weighs more than 18 pounds and is designed to take the place of all 13 separate funding bills that Congress normally passes to fund individual agencies.

While it contains many items Reagan opposes, the President is expected to sign the measure in large part because it gives him the $100 million he wants for the Nicaraguan rebels, known as contras . It is the first military aid that Congress has approved for the contras since learning in early 1984 that the CIA had mined a Nicaraguan harbor.

Opponents of aiding the contras made no effort to block passage of the bill, even though many of them were furious about the apparent involvement of Reagan Administration officials--including Vice President George Bush--in a private effort to supply the contras. Instead, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) offered a resolution requiring Reagan to report to Congress on the extent of U.S. involvement in the effort, but it was defeated by a 50-47 vote.

With the 99th Congress pressing toward adjournment, Democrats said it was simply too late to revive the battle over aid to contras. The issue of U.S. involvement did not come to light until last week, when the Nicaraguans shot down a contras’ supply plane and captured an American survivor, Eugene Hasenfus, who said he was working for the CIA.

The spending bill authorizes the CIA to run the program to aid the contras. The CIA has been prohibited by Congress from doing so since 1984.

Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) described Harkin’s resolution as “mischievous” and “just another attempt to get at the President of the United States.” Harkin replied: “There’s nothing mischievous about it, darn it. If somebody’s broken the law, we ought to know about it.”

Although lawmakers joked about the size and weight of the omnibus spending bill, many saw it as a symbol of their failure to control costs and reduce the federal deficit. It was the first time that Congress has entered into a new fiscal year without passing even one of the 13 separate appropriations bills that normally fund agencies of the government.

4 Stopgap Bills Passed

Since fiscal 1987 began Oct. 1, Congress has passed four stopgap spending bills while trying to complete work on the long-term measure. The last of those measures was to expire at midnight Thursday, leaving the government technically unfunded thereafter.

“I don’t know anyone who’s happy about where we are at this moment,” said Sen. Mark O. Hatfield (R-Ore.), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

At the same time, the lawmakers claimed to be making some modest progress in the battle of the budget. Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.), chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, released a study showing that total federal spending as adjusted for inflation would be cut 2.3% between fiscal 1986 and 1987--the largest drop since 1955--under the terms of this bill. But the reduction could be eliminated if, as expected, Congress passes supplemental spending measures next year, or if economic conditions change.

The final spending bill would provide about $290 billion for defense, slightly less than Congress authorized in a separate Pentagon authorization measure Wednesday. The most serious disagreement between the two bills involved the T-46 trainer.

T-46 Funding Eliminated

The Pentagon measure eliminated funding for the T-46 trainer plane; the larger bill restored the money, even though it was not requested by the Air Force.

When Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Barry Goldwater (R-Ariz.) moved to delete the T-46 money from the larger bill, D’Amato promptly launched a filibuster designed to save his home-state project, a product of Fairchild Industries.

After two hours of filibuster, the Senate rejected, 69 to 21, an effort by Hatfield to halt it.

Among other disputes between the House and Senate that kept the bill from going straight to the President were an attempt to stop government contractors from simultaneously operating union and non-union shops and a requirement that 50% of labor and parts in offshore oil drilling rigs be American-made.

Among the many undisputed items contained in the omnibus spending bill were $1.7 billion to fund an omnibus anti-drug program still being considered by the Congress; $13 billion for foreign assistance, including $3 billion for Israel and $2.1 billion for Egypt; a special appropriation of $200 million for the Philippines, and $396.4 million for research and other activities aimed at preventing AIDS, or acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

In addition, the measure preserved the Army’s $75-million contract with the Italian Beretta company, rejecting an effort by two Massachusetts congressmen to give their state’s Smith & Wesson pistol a second shot at the 320,000-gun order.