Senate Adds to Quake Aid OKd by House : Relief: $600 million for emergency loans by Small Business Administration added to $3.45-billion package.

The Senate today overwhelmingly passed a $3.45-billion relief package for earthquake-damaged Northern California which substantially expands aid approved by the House.

By a vote of 97 to 1, the Senate approved the plan and sent it back to the House as part of a wide-ranging spending bill that must reach President Bush’s desk tonight to keep the federal government from defaulting.

Sen. Gordon J. Humphrey (R-N.H.) cast the only negative vote. Not voting were Sens. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Claiborne Pell (D-R.I.).

The Senate accepted the House-passed $2.85-billion earthquake allocation and, responding to pleas from California lawmakers, added to it $600 million more for Small Business Administration emergency loans.

“California will be eligible to receive immediately $3.45 billion,” said Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.). “It is very likely that the ultimate federal cost for the disaster may be higher . . . for a community that has been badly shaken.”

“People who are dislocated from their homes and businesses need that assistance now,” said Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.), who called the Senate action “generous and sensitive.”

“You have to go for what you can and we’ve done that,” said Rep. Vic Fazio (D-Sacramento), who led his delegation’s unsuccessful effort in the House for even more money--$3.8 billion.

The House measure, passed 321 to 99 on Tuesday, included $500 million for the SBA, $1.1 billion for Federal Emergency Management Agency repair efforts and $1 billion for the Federal Highway Administration’s emergency fund. It also set up a $250-million fund for Bush to spend at his discretion.

In addition to expanding the SBA money, the Senate approved waivers of federal rules, denied in the House bill, that would let the state get more federal money quickly with less commitment of local and state funds.

Cranston estimated the total cost of the damage to the San Francisco Bay Area from the Oct. 17 earthquake exceeded $7 billion.

Quick Senate action was needed because the aid was attached to a stopgap spending bill needed to avert a government shutdown Thursday. The bill is required because Congress and the President have failed to enact 11 of the 13 annual appropriations bills required for the government to operate in fiscal 1990, which began Oct. 1.

A top House leadership aide said he expected that a modest expansion in the Senate would be acceptable in that chamber. Both houses must agree on a single version before it can be sent to the President.

White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said Tuesday that Bush could accept the House version of the assistance plan.

The Administration had proposed $1.5 billion in new federal spending, plus earmarking another $1 billion for quake relief.

Because of the urgency of the situation, the Californians said they are seeking as much as they can get now, while the quake is still fresh on the nation’s consciousness, but will come back for more later.