In a series of frenetic compromises and seemingly contradictory floor votes that left even some veteran legislators bewildered, Congress last week handed Ronald Reagan a major foreign policy defeat. After the Senate passed a highly diluted measure providing humanitarian aid to anti-Sandinista Nicaraguans, the House considered three separate proposals offering various forms of assistance and ended up deciding to cut off aid altogether. The vote effectively scuttled U.S. support of the rebels seeking the overthrow of the Marxist-led Sandinista regime, at least for the time being. Said a "deeply disappointed" Reagan: "This kind of action damages national security and foreign policy...
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