President Signs $47.9-Million Bill for Non-Lethal Contra Aid

President Reagan on Friday signed a $47.9-million bill to speed food, medicine, clothing and other supplies to the Nicaraguan Contras, then flew here for the Easter holiday.

Reagan is planning to spend a week at his ranch northwest of Santa Barbara while his staff moves ahead on preparations for the Moscow summit conference at the end of May.

With one team of White House advisers just back from Moscow and another group leaving in about nine days, the coming week is seen as a period for internal staff discussions focusing on the meetings between Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

Reagan signed the Contra legislation, which spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said the President believed was “urgently needed,” without fanfare in a White House ceremony.

The legislation was swiftly approved by the House on Wednesday and by the Senate on Thursday after negotiation of a truce last week between the Contras and the Sandinista government that they have been trying to overthrow.

For the time being, Fitzwater said, the Administration’s focus on Nicaragua is “probably a matter of monitoring the peace process.”

He said that, while Reagan spends a private week at his ranch in the Santa Ynez range near here, the staff will focus on the trip to the Soviet Union, viewed as the key event in the remaining 9 1/2 months of Reagan’s presidency.

“We’re consumed by summit preparations,” he said. “It turns out to be the week we have to make decisions on how we proceed.”

He said White House senior staff members, some of whom accompanied the President to California and some of whom will join the group later, will focus on the agenda for the five days--May 29 to June 2--that Reagan will spend in Moscow. With the exception of a brief trip to Orange County, Reagan is to spend the entire week at the ranch. On Monday, he will fly by helicopter to Cota de Caza, near Newport Beach, to have lunch at the home of retired Air Force Gen. William Lyon, along with about 75 supporters of the foundation organized to build a Reagan presidential library.

He will return to Washington on April 10.