Byrd Calls for Vote on Contra Aid as It Stands

Senate Majority Leader Robert C. Byrd said today there is no room for further compromise with Republicans on aid to Nicaragua’s Contra rebels because “we’ve gone as far as we can go.”

Byrd (D-W.Va.) told reporters he is prepared to press the Democratic aid plan to a vote and continues to hope it will attract bipartisan support.

“That would send the right message to Central America,” he said.

The Democratic plan would permit $27.1 million in immediate non-lethal “humanitarian” aid to the Contras.

It also would give President Reagan an opportunity to ask Congress this fall to release $16.3 million in previously purchased arms, ammunition and other military supplies now stored in warehouses in Central America.

But it also would require Reagan to certify that such military aid to the Contras is justified because Nicaragua has disrupted the “peace and stability” of Central America by taking two of these three actions: an unprovoked military attack on the Contras, “blatant violations” of the regional peace plan, and continued “unacceptable levels of military assistance by Soviet Bloc countries, including Cuba.”