Administration Again Divided on Urban Aid : Cities: Kemp calls for increased spending. White House says Senate measure to repair riot damage is too expensive.

Bush Administration officials continued to disagree Sunday over aid to Los Angeles and other American cities. A White House spokeswoman said the bill that passed the Senate costs too much, while Housing and Urban Development Secretary Jack Kemp called for increased spending despite the federal deficit.

“To me, getting growth and jobs and opportunity back into the inner cities of America should take precedence over any budget narrowly defined,” Kemp said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Over the long term, continued neglect of urban problems will cost more than treating them would cost, Kemp said.

But in Kennebunkport, Me., where President Bush is spending the Memorial Day weekend, White House deputy press secretary Judy Smith told reporters the Senate bill is too costly.

“We strongly prefer the House bill,” she said.

Both the House and Senate bills contain just under $500 million in direct aid to help repair riot damage in Los Angeles and flood damage in Chicago. But the Senate added almost $1.5 billion to help pay for jobs and education for young people in U.S. cities this summer by expanding existing programs. The added Senate money also includes $250 million for the Administration’s proposed “weed and seed” plan to increase police efforts to weed out criminals from urban neighborhoods while seeding them with new social service funds.

Despite the money for the Administration’s own program, White House officials have said all week that Bush would oppose any large new spending programs for cities. Sunday’s remarks indicate the continuing rift in Bush’s ranks over that stand.

Kemp has been the Administration’s leading advocate of programs to aid cities, but he has been excluded from negotiations over the current bill.

Other officials have argued that the federal government should spend far less on cities. In a meeting earlier this week, Vice President Dan Quayle told Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley the city should look toward selling Los Angeles International Airport to finance rebuilding of riot-damaged areas.

Kemp took issue with that idea. “I personally wouldn’t say to Tom Bradley that he ought to sell the airport in Los Angeles as the only way of funding aid to Los Angeles,” the HUD secretary said.

While Quayle and other GOP leaders have stressed the importance of reducing the federal deficit, Kemp long has argued that the deficit problem should take lower priority than policies he believes would spur economic growth.

“It would be a terrible situation to have Republicans positioned as worried about the budget over people,” Kemp said.

In addition to longstanding disagreements over policy, Kemp and Quayle see each other as p otential rivals for the GOP presidential nomination in 1996. The two men--as well as other members of the Bush Cabinet--increasingly have started jockeying for position for that race by highlighting their differences.

Despite the arguments about the bill, both congressional Democratic leaders and Bush aides feel a need to pass something to help rebuild the riot damage. Because of that, both sides expect some sort of bill to pass before mid-summer.

Aides to senior congressional Democrats have told reporters that they expect their side will compromise by scaling down the money the Senate added to the bill. The White House, for its part, has tried to keep the pressure on to reduce the cost of whatever program emerges but has carefully avoided issuing a flat veto threat.