Senate Vote Keeps Contra Issue Alive : Symbolic Action Backs GOP Vow to Add Arms Aid

The Senate, serving notice that the fight over aiding the Nicaraguan Contras is far from over, defied House Democratic leaders Thursday and cast a symbolic vote endorsing the Reagan Administration’s plan to give weapons and humanitarian aid to the anti-Sandinista rebels.

Proponents of Contra aid conceded that the 51-48 vote was moot, because the plan had been defeated by the House the night before, but they said it would keep the issue alive and vowed to introduce new requests for military aid in the coming weeks.

“Anybody who thinks this issue will go away is just plain wrong,” said Sen. Alan K. Simpson (R-Wyo.), the minority whip. “This vote should sober up old Daffy Danny (Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega) and put pressure on him to keep faith with the peace process.”

Dead for Now

But Democratic opponents insisted that the military aid issue is dead for now, and they vowed to press ahead with a plan of strictly humanitarian aid that they will bring before Congress in three weeks.

The stalemate clouds the prospect that Congress will be able to act soon on an aid package for the rebels and virtually guarantees that the politically divisive issue will rage on through the session.

Meanwhile, President Reagan said in a statement he was “deeply disappointed” by the House’s 219-211 rejection of his plan to give $36.25 million in aid to the Contras, but he did not indicate what he will do to revive the top foreign policy priority. Spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said only that Reagan would consult with Central American leaders and also Congress “to determine whether the Sandinistas are making measurable and timely progress toward attainment of democratic reforms.”

During the Senate debate, Republicans lashed out at House Democrats who had led the opposition to the military assistance and declared that they would rue the day they “abandoned” the rebel forces. They said it was important to press on with the debate even though approval by both houses was required to approve the aid.

More important, Republican strategists guaranteed that proposals to revive the military aid will be introduced if and when the Democratic package being developed by House Speaker Jim Wright (D-Tex.) comes before them.

“You’ll see them without exception, dozens of them, maybe,” said Simpson.

House Democrats, who met Thursday to begin assembling their promised package of humanitarian assistance to the Nicaraguan rebels, remained vague on details, saying only that they would bring the legislation to Congress for a vote within three weeks.

The proposal will show that “We want to be for something, as opposed to just being against something,” said California Rep. Tony Coelho (D-Merced), the House Democratic whip. “We are for continued involvement in Central America. . . . The question is whether there is progress on the peace process. The peace process is the key” to continued U.S. aid.

But Republicans appeared to be spoiling for a fight over the humanitarian aid package. In a testy exchange with California Democratic Sen. Alan Cranston, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said: “The ball is now in your (the Democrats’) court. . . . It is your responsibility to come up with a policy that has majority support in Congress.”

Cranston then warned Senate Republicans that any effort to attach military aid to the humanitarian aid package being prepared by House Democrats could doom any such assistance.

“Supporters of the Contras should be aware--and now is none too soon to put them on notice--that any attempt to turn the humanitarian aid bill into a resurrected military aid bill will indefinitely delay humanitarian aid and perhaps kill it altogether,” Cranston said.

Even if such an amendment were to pass the Senate, he continued, “it most certainly would not be accepted by the House,” which would have to concur in any major changes to its legislation.

But Republicans vowed to press on with their own efforts to arm the Contras. Simpson said Contra supporters in both parties need to “get their message” across to the American people.

Recalls Vietnam

“There’s a confusion in the public over this issue,” he said. “Every time they hear the word Contras, there’s the word Vietnam in the back of their retinas, like a big neon sign. We have to show them that’s not the case.”

Democrats, however, said the House vote showed that Reagan’s policies has been decisively rejected and that a new approach to Central America is needed.

Sen. Bill Bradley (D-N.J.), who previously voted for military aid to the Contras, said he opposed Reagan’s latest proposal because the Administration had ignored repeated requests to postpone the congressional vote and remove military aid from the package.

The President, he said, “ignored our tactical advice . . . even when it had Republican support. Democrats and Republicans alike appealed to the President to postpone this vote. More time would have tested the Sandinista’s real intentions.

“Instead, he (Reagan) stubbornly insisted on symbolic lethal assistance that he had to know Congress would defeat. If Ronald Reagan really cared about a policy for peace and democracy in Central America, he would not have let this happen.”

As the debate continued in the Senate, White House officials began searching for a new strategy in the wake of the House vote on Wednesday.

In a written statement, Reagan said the House action “undercuts the efforts of those brave men and women at a critical juncture in the Central American peace process.”

No Signal of Reversal

“The Communist regime in Managua should not interpret the House’s action as a signal permitting a reversal in steps taken toward fulfillment of the commitments made under the Guatemala accords,” he said.

But Reagan’s statement was generally conciliatory, avoiding some of the harsher language he has employed in the past on behalf of the Contras, and he said he looked forward to consulting with Congress to determine whether the Sandinistas are meeting commitments to institute democratic reforms.

Meanwhile, senior White House officials portrayed the President’s staff as confused and uncertain about the course they will follow in the wake of the setback in the House--and the likelihood that regardless of the Senate vote, a brake will be placed at least temporarily on military supplies.

Two officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that after Reagan met with senior aides in the morning--including Secretary of State George P. Shultz, Lt. Gen. Colin L. Powell, his national security adviser, and Chief of Staff Howard H. Baker Jr.--no conclusions were reached.

Meanwhile, Fitzwater said the Administration would not be involved in efforts to fund the Contras with private donations or with money raised in other countries.

“In view of our history with the Iran-Contra thing, we want to make it very clear exactly what our role is, that we’re up front and out in front. And we will be supporting the resistance and the peace process in Central America by every means possible, but they’ll be open . . . and they will not involve private activities,” he told reporters.