Senators Seek Increase in Aid to East Bloc

Arguing that President Bush’s request for additional aid for Eastern Europe is not enough, Senate Democrats unveiled legislation Tuesday to give an additional $511 million to fund democratic reform movements in East Bloc countries over the next three years.

The money, which the Democrats suggested could be funded by further cuts in the defense budget, would be added to a $738-million aid package approved last November for Poland and Hungary.

Announcing what amounted to the Democrats’ formal response to the Bush Administration on the East Bloc aid issue, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Claiborne Pell (D-R.I.) said the new funds would be used to assist democratic reform efforts in East Germany, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia--countries not covered under the Poland-Hungary bill.

The legislation, which calls for $211 million more than the Administration requested for Eastern Europe in the budget it submitted to Congress on Monday, logically would be financed by the so-called “peace divided,” Sen. Paul Simon (D-Ill.) said.

“We have spent something like 2 or 3 trillion dollars on defense since World War II to protect us from the military threat posed by Eastern Europe,” Simon said.

“Now that this threat has diminished, it is extremely important for the security of this nation that we gamble on freedom in Eastern Europe.”

Pell’s proposal would use the largest portion of the aid, $250 million, to fund U.S. participation in the new European Bank for Reconstruction and Development being established to help East Bloc countries move toward democracy.

Another $80 million is earmarked for emergency food aid for Romania while $43 million would be used to promote the development of non-communist political parties in several East Bloc states. A portion of that latter amount--$10 million--would be distributed as soon as the bill becomes law in order to help emerging political parties prepare for upcoming elections in their countries.

Pell described the bill, which would also liberalize trade restrictions and provide non-economic forms of assistance such as management training to the Soviet Union, as a “modest start” in addressing the profound political changes and growing economic needs of Eastern Europe. He predicted that the amount being proposed may well increase as the bill winds its way through Congress “in view of the profound interest” that lawmakers share in “supporting positive developments in Eastern Europe.”