$1-Billion Aid Plan for Soviets Proposed : Defense: Congressional leaders, Administration would use money from the Pentagon budget for humanitarian assistance and retraining of military.

The Bush Administration and congressional leaders agreed Friday to use up to $1 billion from the defense budget for humanitarian aid to the Soviet Union and for a controversial plan to help the Soviet military convert to civilian activities.

The deal was nailed into a compromise $291-billion defense authorization bill that both houses of Congress are expected to approve and President Bush has promised to sign, despite conservative protests against the Soviet aid plan.

Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) and Rep. Les Aspin (D-Wis.), chairmen of Congress’ Armed Services committees, sprang the aid agreement on defense bill conferees at the eleventh hour, after secret negotiations with Defense Secretary Dick Cheney and White House officials.

Aspin argued that the humanitarian aid is needed to ward off hunger and possible chaos in the Soviet Union this winter, and Nunn said that the proposed retraining of Soviet military officers and experts might keep them from peddling their weapons expertise to other countries.

“We have tens of thousands of Soviet engineers and scientists that have been engaged in the production of nuclear, chemical, biological and missile technology,” Nunn told a news conference. And, as they become unemployed and “more and more desperate as the Soviet economy deteriorates,” he added, “the Saddam Husseins of the world . . . may very well see that as a great resource for escalating the arms race.”

The plan also envisions helping the Soviets set up a GI Bill-style education program; facilitating private U.S. investment in the conversion of military weapons plants, and teaching Soviet officers “American principles of civilian control of the military.”

Under the plan, the President would have discretion to spend up to $1 billion from the Pentagon’s working capital and operations and maintenance accounts in the fiscal year that began Oct. 1.

Conservative lawmakers assailed the plan as a “Halloween surprise” that would send U.S. dollars to a still-threatening foreign power at a time when pressing domestic needs are unmet.

“This is absolutely outrageous,” Sen. Robert C. Smith (R-N. H.) fumed. “The United States is in a recession. We have millions of unemployed Americans with Congress unable to pass a bill (extending jobless benefits) to help them. And now we’re going to give the Soviet military complex a billion-dollar unemployment package.”

Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.), attacking the plan on similar grounds, complained that Senate-House conferees were hit with it just as negotiations on the rest of the bill were ending.

“We still have not had a chance to really look into this,” he said. “There are still a lot of serious questions about it.”

The agreement was struck after Cheney and, to a lesser extent, Bush initially resisted a proposal made by Aspin last August to take $1 billion from the defense budget to send food and medicine to the Soviets this winter.

But, as the President eventually agreed that some humanitarian aid was needed, sources said, Aspin and other Democratic leaders began arguing privately with Administration officials that the only way to pay for it was with defense funds.

“We said you can’t get Congress to cut domestic programs, and for every dollar you try to take from foreign aid . . . people will want to take $10 for farmers and the unemployed,” related a lawmaker who requested anonymity.

Finally, Cheney, Budget Director Richard G. Darman and the President’s national security adviser, Brent Scowcroft, worked out the details with Nunn and Aspin.

The most disputed items in the defense measure were the B-2 Stealth bomber and the “Star Wars” anti-missile program, known formally as the Strategic Defense Initiative.

The conferees agreed on $1.8 billion to keep B-2 production lines going at Northrop Corp. plants in Los Angeles to complete the 15 planes previously authorized, but they required approval by both houses next year for an additional $1 billion to be spent for a 16th plane.

Opponents of the B-2 said that the House would never vote for additional B-2s. But proponents held out hope that the B-2’s radar-evading technology would pass new tests and change minds on the plane’s value.

The “Star Wars” agreement authorized construction by 1996 of a limited, ground-based shield at Grand Forks, N. D. However, funds were also provided for further research on a broader, space-based “Brilliant Pebbles” system sought by Bush.

The defense compromise would also repeal a 1948 law prohibiting women from flying planes in combat and set up a commission to study whether they could also fight in wartime on ships or even in infantry battles.

The commission would also try to answer such questions as whether courts might require that women be drafted in wartime if the draft is restarted and there are no longer any laws or rules against their fighting in combat.

“There will be women flying Navy and Air Force combat aircraft,” said Rep. Beverly B. Byron (D-Md.), an author of the provision. “I would not at all be surprised if you would not see some women (in combat planes) in the next six months to a year.”

Sources said that House Democratic leaders decided not to press for a controversial provision that would have lifted a Pentagon ban against privately financed abortions for servicewomen at U.S. military bases abroad. They dropped the House-passed abortion provision because they feared it would provoke a Bush veto of the bill, possibly leading to an unraveling of the B-2 agreement.

The Defense Authorization Bill

Here are highlights of the 1992 defense authorization bill completed by House and Senate negotiators Friday: WEAPONS

B-2 Stealth bomber: $1.8 billion to keep the production line open, but no firm authority to purchase additional planes. An additional $1 billion that could be used to buy one plane, but only if the Pentagon certifies that the B-2 has met certain technical standards and only if both the House and the Senate pass a bill permitting release of the money. Also, $1.56 billion for Stealth research.

B-1B bomber: $115 million for safety improvements.

The Strategic Defense Initiative: Program gets $4.15 billion, about $1.2 billion more than in 1991. It includes $390 million to develop space-based missile interceptors and $1.53 billion to develop for deployment a ground-based system to defend the United States against limited attacks by long-range missiles. Also, $848 million to develop a system to defend against short-range missiles.

Tomahawk cruise missiles: About $580 million to manufacture more of the kind of missile used in the Persian Gulf War.

SSN-21 Seawolf attack submarine: $2.2 billion for one additional sub.

F-117A Stealth fighter-bomber: $560 million to build four of the planes, which went out of production several years ago. The bill said as many as 12 new planes could be purchased over three years, even though the Air Force has said it does not want any more.

F-16 Falcon fighters: $1.07 billion for production of 48 planes, plus $78 million in advance procurement funds for 24 of the aircraft in 1993, and $175 million in research and development funds. PERSONNEL

Salaries: A 4.2% pay raise for all members of the armed forces.

Personnel cuts: A reduction in the number of active-duty military personnel of 106,358, or 5%, to a total by Sept. 30, 1992, of 1.88 million.

National Guard and Reserves: A cut in the number of National Guard and Reserve members of 37,580, instead of the 105,076 proposed by the Bush Administration. An additional 33,505 would be cut in 1993.

Women in combat: An elimination of the ban on women flying combat missions in Navy and Air Force planes.

Source: Associated Press