Senate Passes Aid Package for Ex-Soviet States

The Senate, overcoming weeks of partisan delays, satisfied one of President Bush’s top foreign policy priorities Thursday by passing a much-debated package of economic aid for Russia and the other former Soviet states.

The broad economic package, whose centerpiece is a $12-billion increase in the U.S. contribution to the International Monetary Fund, was approved by a vote of 76 to 20 just before the Senate recessed for the July 4 weekend. The House is expected to approve the bill later this month.

Supporters of the legislation, which authorizes $1 billion in new bilateral aid to Russia and 14 other former Soviet republics over two years, described the package as a “historic opportunity” to help Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin consolidate the reforms that will keep the world from backsliding into the Cold War.

But as members tried to take advantage of a bill they knew Bush would sign by adding their own pork barrel projects, it soon became clear that the debate had less to do with history than with campaign histrionics.

In a measure of how unpopular foreign aid has become during an election-year recession, even some longtime supporters of overseas assistance said it would be immoral to help the people of the former Soviet Union without also adding more money to help Americans at home.

“Sure, we need to be concerned about stability in Russia. But it angers me that Russian recovery is viewed as more of a threat to national security than the rot from within that threatens our own nation,” said Sen. Howard M. Metzenbaum (D-Ohio).

Along with Sen. Donald W. Riegle Jr. (D-Mich.), Metzenbaum sponsored an amendment that would have obliged Bush to spend one dollar on domestic programs for every dollar spent from the authorization for new aid to the former Soviet republics.

One of a series of “killer” amendments that opponents charged would have dealt a fatal blow to the bill by provoking Bush to veto it, the Riegle-Metzenbaum proposal was defeated, 64 to 32.

A number of other amendments were added, however, before the Senate, wearily wrapping up two days of marathon debate, finally passed the bill in the waning hours before its adjournment.

For instance, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) attached an amendment authorizing $35 million to help Russia purchase clean coal-burning technology developed in his home state.

Sens. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Bob Kasten (R-Wis.) added $12 million for agricultural exchange programs most likely to benefit their states.

“President Bush loves foreign policy. That’s all he ever comes here for. . . . What he doesn’t love is domestic policy, and the only way we’re going to get any help for America is to put it on a foreign policy bill that Bush will sign,” Riegle argued in defending the not-uncommon practice of adding sometimes unrelated legislation to a bill that appears likely to pass.

One such amendment came in the form of a non-binding resolution expressing the Senate’s opposition to the proposed sale of the LTV Corp.’s aerospace division to a subsidiary of the French government-owned firm Thomson S.A. Senators argued that the sale could allow sensitive missile technology to fall into foreign hands; they subsequently passed a “sense of the Senate” resolution opposing the sale, 93 to 4.

The Russian aid bill was first proposed by Bush last April but was held up by election-year battles over the budget deficit and a domestic aid package still pending in Congress. The $1 billion it authorizes for Russia and 14 former Soviet republics would come both as direct assistance and seed money to help ease the nations’ conversion to free-market economies.