$8.6-Billion Quake Aid OKd by Senate : Recovery: Conference committee must resolve conflicts with House version, which differs on spending cuts. Final congressional passage could come today.

The Senate overwhelmingly approved $8.6 billion for Southern California earthquake relief Thursday and sent the bill to a conference committee so that differences with the House version of the legislation can be worked out. Final passage is expected today.

Prodded by California Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, the Senate ended a lengthy debate over how the government would pay for the assistance and voted, 85 to 10, to approve the measure.

“The clock is ticking and the people are needful,” Feinstein said at one point.

“We need these dollars now,” Boxer implored.

Swift action is essential to put the emergency measure on President Clinton’s desk before lawmakers leave this weekend for a 10-day midwinter recess. Clinton’s signature on the law would keep federal funds flowing to Southern California as the region recovers from the Jan. 17 quake that killed at least 57 people in Los Angeles County.

After the vote, the two California senators voiced gratitude. “This puts us on the road to recovery,” Feinstein said.

Senate and House negotiators were scheduled to meet early today to reconcile more than 125 differences between the Senate and House versions of the bill. But they are expected to agree quickly on final language and to ratify it later today.

The chief obstacle in the conference appears to be the gap between the $3.4 billion in offsetting spending cuts voted by the Senate and the $2.5 billion worth of such reductions voted by the House. In addition, each chamber passed different approaches to those cuts.

Another difference between the House and Senate bills is the wording of provisions designed to bar non-emergency aid to illegal immigrants.

The Senate approved compromise language proposed by Sen. Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) to require federal agencies to take “reasonable steps” to determine that recipients of disaster aid lasting longer than 90 days are not in the country illegally. The House approved a provision that said that aid would be barred only if government agencies knew an applicant was in the country unlawfully.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency had warned that it would run out of money for earthquake relief next week unless Congress approved the legislation. The Senate measure includes $4.7 billion for FEMA to repair schools, mass transit facilities and public buildings as well as to assist individuals and provide temporary shelter.

In addition, the Senate voted to allocate $1.35 billion to the Department of Transportation to rebuild damaged freeways and bridges and to designate $1.1 billion for low-interest Small Business Administration loans to assist homeowners and small firms. A total of $200 million was voted for rent subsidies provided by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. President Clinton also would get a $500-million fund to use at his discretion in dealing with effects of the temblor.

The earthquake aid is part of a $10.1-billion emergency supplemental bill that includes $1.2 billion for U.S. peacekeeping operations in Somalia, Bosnia and elsewhere, $685 million for cleanup operations from last summer’s Midwest floods and $315 million to repair the Cypress Freeway that was damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.

The Northridge earthquake aid legislation is the largest package ever considered for a single disaster. Congress appropriated $8.5 billion for three 1992 disasters: Hurricane Andrew and two similar events in Hawaii and Guam.

Gov. Pete Wilson’s Administration estimated this week that the total cost of damage from the Northridge quake would be $13 billion to $20 billion. The cost for federal, state and local government assistance was estimated at $11.6 billion, making it the most expensive single calamity in U.S. history.

The Senate debate featured repeated efforts to offset the cost of the bill by making cuts in other federal programs--a move that was opposed by the two California senators and the Senate Democratic leadership on grounds that it would delay the disaster aid.

Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) said: “We all agree we must provide disaster aid for the victims of this devastating earthquake . . . But are we going to ring up another $10 billion on Uncle Sam’s credit card or are we going to shift spending priorities to pay for this?”

Dole’s proposal to make $6.7 billion worth of spending cuts was sidetracked, however, when it fell 17 votes short of the 60 votes needed to consider his amendment under Senate procedures.

Similar efforts by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Sen. Russell D. Feingold (D-Wis.) and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) to make offsetting reductions were crushed by lopsided margins of 3 to 1 or more.

Opponents of offsets argued that no such restrictions were imposed when Congress voted emergency relief for victims of Hurricane Andrew or other recent disasters such as last summer’s Midwestern floods.

“Changing the rules in the middle of an emergency like this is wrong,” Boxer said.

Nearly all senators agreed that the nation needs a new method to pay for disaster relief and a bipartisan committee was appointed to look into possible ways to reduce the drain on the Treasury in the future when natural calamities occur.

The Senate turned down on a 58-37 procedural vote a plan by Sen. Frank H. Murkowski (R-Alaska) to allow taxpayers to earmark $3 of their income tax payments to provide financial aid to victims of future disasters.

Advocates of the earthquake aid measure even invoked the specter of another winter storm in the Washington area to cut short senators’ lengthy speeches in favor of both emergency assistance and deficit reduction.

“I wouldn’t want to spend the night in the Capitol,” said Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W. Va.) at one point, referring to forecasts of a heavy snowfall in Washington late Thursday night.

Some senators objected to the earthquake aid bill because it also contained $10 million for relocation of Penn Station in New York City and $1.4 million to combat a fungus that could cause potato blight.

“This bill is about the gravy train,” said McCain. “We’re going to see how many taxpayers we can take for a ride.”

A McCain amendment to knock out $2.2 billion in highway demonstration projects unrelated to the quake was rejected by a lopsided 72-23 vote.

Kerry’s attempt to cut $43 billion over the next five years was shelved by a 75-20 vote. Feingold’s proposal to knock out $1.2 billion for Pentagon peacekeeping expenses was trounced, 76 to 19.

On final passage, eight Republicans and two Democrats voted against the bill. They were Wisconsin Democrats Feingold and Herb Kohl, and Republicans Hank Brown of Colorado; Jesse Helms and Lauch Faircloth of North Carolina; Judd Gregg and Robert C. Smith of New Hampshire; Larry Pressler of South Dakota, Malcolm Wallop of Wyoming and Don Nickles of Oklahoma.

Five senators did not vote. They were Democrat Bill Bradley of New Jersey and Republicans John C. Danforth of Missouri, David Durenberger of Minnesota, Bob Packwood of Oregon and Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas.