Foreign Aid Bill Buoyed as Abortion Curbs Cut

Leading members of Congress agreed Tuesday to scrap an anti-abortion restriction on U.S. foreign aid programs--a significant legislative victory for abortion rights advocates in advance of the Nov. 7 election.

The agreement helped smooth the way for passage of a $14.9-billion foreign aid package that is one of the last annual spending bills yet to be resolved before Congress adjourns. The bill is expected to reach the House floor today.

The White House had no immediate comment, although Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), a key negotiator, said he believes the administration supports the accord.

The legislation includes major outlays to help fight the AIDS epidemic in Africa, encourage peacemaking in the Middle East and forgive debts for dozens of highly impoverished nations.

But for all the importance of those provisions, abortion policy remained a central focus of the negotiations--as it has been since Republicans took over Congress nearly six years ago.

The deal reached Tuesday by House-Senate negotiators would increase funding for international family planning organizations to $425 million in fiscal 2001, up from $385 million in the previous year and the first increase since 1995.

Crucially, the deal would erase restrictions enacted last year to curtail U.S. funding for overseas groups that perform abortions or advocate abortion rights. But the issue could be revisited by the next president because the money would not be released until Feb. 15, after a new administration takes power.

“It’s an important victory,” said Kate Michelman, president of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League. “I must say, however, it’s a bit tenuous.”

The delay in release of the funding--and the possibility that a Republican administration next year would move to reinstate the restrictions--underscores the importance of the presidential election, Michelman said.

Vice President Al Gore, the Democratic presidential nominee, favors legalized abortion. Texas Gov. George W. Bush, his Republican foe, supports a ban on abortion except in cases of rape, incest and a medical threat to the life of a pregnant woman.

Anti-abortion restrictions on U.S. funds for international family planning groups were first imposed by executive order in 1984 by the Reagan administration.

President Clinton scrapped the restrictions soon after taking office in 1993, fulfilling a campaign pledge, but last year agreed to let them become law in a compromise to obtain funding for the United Nations.

Reversing that policy shift represents at least a symbolic victory for Clinton at the tail end of his presidency. Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, who described himself as supporting abortion rights, said Tuesday that the deal on abortion would not be well received by many members of the Republican-controlled Senate.

But Sen. Robert F. Bennett (R-Utah), another negotiator, said afterward that the issue will soon be moot. “We’re two weeks away from a new president.”

The bill funding foreign operations for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1 also includes $300 million to fight the spread of AIDS, and the virus that causes the disease, in Africa and elsewhere. It also provides $1.9 billion in military funding and $840 million in economic aid to Israel. Egypt, likewise, would get nearly $2 billion in combined military and economic aid and Jordan would get $225 million. And Serbia, with some conditions, would be eligible for up to $100 million following the recent election defeat of President Slobodan Milosevic.

The bill also includes $435 million for international debt relief, part of a major multinational initiative, championed by Clinton and a left-right coalition of religious figures and celebrities, that seeks to eliminate billions of dollars in debt borne by 41 impoverished nations in Africa and Latin America. But the bill puts at least one condition on the funding: that countries receiving debt relief abide by a two-year moratorium on certain new loans.

Action on the foreign aid bill would remove one roadblock to congressional adjournment for this legislative year.

On another front, Republican leaders Tuesday neared agreement on legislation to increase the federal hourly minimum wage by $1 over two years--from $5.15 now to $6.15 in 2002--as part of a bill that would also cut taxes by $260 billion over 10 years for small businesses, people who save for retirement and other taxpayers. Details of the tax cuts were still in flux, but the bill was expected to increase from $2,000 to $5,000 a year the amount of money people could deposit in tax-deferred individual retirement accounts. A key question was whether the bill would include other provisions opposed by Clinton.

Other roadblocks include two bills funding labor, education, health and other social programs; and the Commerce, State and Justice departments. House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) told reporters he hopes to wrap up work by week’s end. That would require passage today of a fifth stopgap spending bill for fiscal 2001.

Times staff writer Janet Hook contributed to this story.