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Reagan will probably try later in the year to persuade Long's committee to approve the remaining $30 million. Still to be voted on are Reagan's requests for supplemental aid to El Salvador this year and $600 million in foreign assistance to all Central America for fiscal 1984. Said Long: "I've told the Administration that whether they get any additional funds will depend on the performance of the negotiator [Envoy Stone] in achieving the peaceful settlement, including elections, that we are looking for." By that he means elections in which the rebels can safely participate, a proposition the rebels reject as a contradiction in terms.
On the day after Reagan's speech, another House committee backed away, at least temporarily, from a showdown with the Administration over aid that is being secretly funneled to the rebels, known as the contras, fighting Nicaragua's left-wing Sandinista regime. An amendment passed last year sponsored by Edward Boland, a Massachusetts Democrat, forbids covert attempts to overthrow the Nicaraguan government, but the money supplied to the contras is ostensibly for the purpose of impeding arms shipments from Nicaragua to the left-wing insurgents in El Salvador. Boland, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, proposed legislation last week that would cut off covert funding entirely, while allowing for overt actions to restrict the arms flow. The vote in his committee was postponed until this week after Republican members protested that they had not been given enough time to consider the bill. (Their Senate counterparts have already approved more funds for the contras, but would probably reconsider if the Boland bill is passed by the House.)
Boland and other Democrats accepted the delay because they have been trying to negotiate a compromise with the White House. Committee members met with the President earlier in the week, and one Administration official noted that the lawmakers acknowledged the importance of preserving covert activity as an instrument of policy. The proposed compromise involves tightening up the original Boland amendment by making it clear that the U.S. would support only those activities of the contras aimed specifically at interdicting arms.
Other Democratic Senators are more supportive of the President's policies. Debating the issue of covert funding at a secret, closed-door Senate session the day before Reagan's speech, Democrat Lloyd Bentsen of Texas warned members they would be blamed for "losing" Central America if they cut off funds. He pointed out that the U.S. sends billions in aid as well as Marines to the Middle East while quibbling over millions and a few advisers in America's own backyard.