Bush, Democrats Agree on Urban Aid Program : Legislation: President, lawmakers leave details of the package, which could cost up to $6 billion, up in the air.

Without settling on the details--or how to pay for all of it--President Bush and Democratic congressional leaders agreed Tuesday on the broad outlines of an urban aid program and predicted quick passage of the effort that has been spurred by the Los Angeles riots.

At the same time, the White House said Bush and Republican leaders would endorse a temporary, $2.5-billion extension of unemployment compensation from July 4 to next March 6 to help long-term jobless workers.

Democrats, who appeared likely to go along with the President, have favored a permanent change in the law to provide automatic benefit extensions when unemployment rises to 6% or more.

And, in another effort aimed at urban areas, sources said the Administration would today announce plans to make available another $600 million in low-interest housing and commercial loans through the Federal Home Loan Bank system.

Although it was unclear Tuesday night exactly who would qualify for the loans, some of the money would be earmarked as mortgage money for low-income residents, while the remainder would be targeted at entire communities for commercial endeavors. Clearly, residents of parts of riot-torn Los Angeles would qualify.

White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater characterized the Bush-Democrat urban program as “a renewed appeal” for previous Administration proposals that Congress has failed to adopt or had included in measures that the President vetoed.

The package, with an estimated price tag of between $5 billion and $6 billion, will include a new infusion of funds to provide up to $800 million for direct federal loans and disaster relief primarily for the Los Angeles area and Chicago, where the downtown area suffered severe damage from underground flooding last month.

The House Appropriations Committee, acting with rare speed, approved $494.6 million for disaster aid on Tuesday, with approval by the full House expected Thursday. Part of the funds would act as seed money to finance $500 million in Small Business Administration loans; the rest would provide $300 million in direct assistance by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The unusual degree of cooperation stemmed from the political pressures forced on the White House and Congress by the approaching elections, as well as the shock waves sent across the nation by the Los Angeles riots, said Rep. Joseph M. McDade (R-Pa.), the ranking Republican on the panel.

“Both political parties are trying to find common ground in a most uncommon year when we’re heading for an election,” he said.

As expected, the repackaged elements include:

* A law enforcement program known as “weed and seed,” for which Bush requested $500 million in his 1993 budget, presented last February. The program would combine federal, state and local law enforcement efforts to remove, or “weed,” drug dealers and other criminals from urban streets, and then “seed” the neighborhood with funds for social programs from a wide number of federal agencies. It has yet to be approved by Congress.

The proposal would increase the number of cities from two pilot programs to as many as 17; Los Angeles would be one of them.

* A housing program, for which the Administration had already sought $1 billion, to help 36,000 families living in public housing purchase their homes, and start another 65,000 families on the road to home ownership. It is based on the theory that communities fare better when those living in them have personal stakes in their conditions.

* A tax plan, known as enterprise zones, that would offer a zero capital gains tax rate to certain investments in inner-city areas for two years, as well as other tax advantages, in an effort to attract employers to such neighborhoods. It would cost $1.5 billion. The Democrats had passed one enterprise zone plan, but Bush vetoed it because he sought a greater break for capital gains.

* A school choice program intended to help parents pay for private or parochial school tuitions using public money. The Administration sees the program as a means to spur public schools into improving their programs and compete with non-public institutions. The plan also includes other education proposals long advanced by the Administration.

* A welfare proposal, sent to Congress without success a year ago and recently resurrected as a focus of Administration attention, would give states greater flexibility in experimenting with means of reducing their welfare rolls.

* An already proposed $683-million youth jobs program to provide training in job skills for young people.

People who lost jobs as a result of the riots, but who would not necessarily qualify for standard unemployment benefits, would receive special federal aid under the Disaster Unemployment Assistance Program.

Bush, whose requests for many of the programs have been stymied or pared back by Congress, presented the funding requests for urban development and law enforcement programs as “new money,” telling reporters: “We haven’t gotten it yet. It’s new. It has not been enacted.”

He acknowledged that “some of these things have been proposed before.”

But they gained little support in Congress--and, in many cases, little attention from the Administration itself over the last three years. So, he added, “we’re going to now fight for them to get them passed.”

The President’s package made no mention of Democratic leaders’ proposal for a speed-up of spending for highways and other public works that would pump $3.6 billion into the economy and open up job opportunities by the thousands.

The tentative agreement also overlooked Democrats’ desire for final passage of a crime bill that would raise federal aid to state and local police and encourage community policing in inner cities. Opposition by Republicans and the President has blocked Senate approval of a House-Senate compromise already passed by the House.

But Democratic leaders, who normally cast a wary eye on White House proposals, emerged from the rare White House meeting--at which Bush was joined by Cabinet members with responsibility for domestic matters--offering praise for the atmosphere there.

And Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), who had complained when she was excluded from Bush’s tour of her riot-ravaged South-Central district, said she was “extremely encouraged.”

“It was a good meeting of intentions . . . very constructive,” said House Majority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.). “Hopefully in the near future we can come to some agreements on what should be done and how to do it.”

House Majority Whip David E. Bonior (D-Mich.) said it was the first time this year that Bush had invited Democratic congressional leaders to the White House to discuss helping Americans in need.

“It’s tragic that it took four years and a crisis to focus the President’s attention. I hope today’s meeting means the President has seen the light, not just felt the heat,” he said.

House Speaker Thomas S. Foley (D-Wash.), said he was pleased by the outreach from the White House, but nevertheless sounded a note of caution. He said questions remained over which federal programs would be raided to pay for the new urban programs. He also questioned how much the programs could achieve.

“Will this answer all the problems of urban America? No. . . . It would be hyperbole of the worst kind to suggest that that is going to happen,” he said.

Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.), echoing a similar degree of skepticism, cracked: “We’ve agreed on everything but the details.”

Times staff writer Robert Rosenblatt contributed to this story.