ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 28, 1990                   TAG: 9003280293
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A=8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

HOUSE COMMITTEE OKS AMENDED PANAMA-NICARAGUA AID PLAN

A House committee approved President Bush's urgent request for aid to Panama and Nicaragua on Tuesday, but not before nearly tripling to $2.4 billion the overall cost of the bill containing the aid.

The Appropriations Committee approved the supplemental money bill on a voice vote after shaving $80 million from Bush's request for Panama and adding an array of domestic spending programs from disaster relief to veterans' benefits. That left the Panama figure at $420 million and the Nicaragua amount unchanged at $300 million.

The bill is expected to go to the full House next week as lawmakers struggle to meet Bush's April 5 deadline for enactment of aid for the two new Central American democracies.

But several battles on unrelated issues lay ahead, and chances of meeting that target date were fading.

Bush's request for $800 million for the new government of President Guillermo Endara in Panama and the soon-to-be installed government of President-elect Violeta Chamorro in Nicaragua was the centerpiece of the bill, which provides money for a variety of new needs in the current fiscal year.

For Panama, Bush's $500 million request was trimmed to $420 million.

That freed $80 million to be spent in other areas the president had not sought: $25 million to help feed refugees, primarily in Africa; $5 million to help settle Soviet Jews emigrating to Israel; $15 million in economic aid to Eastern Caribbean countries; $5 million to repair damage in the same region from Hurricane Hugo; $10 million for the newly independent African country of Namibia; $10 million to promote democracy in South Africa; $2.5 million for Zambia; $2.5 million for Mozambique; and $5 million in African development aid not earmarked for a specific country.

In separate action on Tuesday, the House Foreign Affairs Committee approved provisions giving Israel a cut rate on loan origination fees for the package.

But as it approved those elements of Bush's request, the committee added $1.6 billion for a host of politically favored domestic programs. 


 by CNB