$1.3 BILLION VOTED TO FIGHT DRUG WAR AMONG COLOMBIANS

WASHINGTON, June 29 -- The House approved an $11.2 billion spending bill
tonight that includes more than a billion dollars in emergency aid to battle
drug traffickers and their rebel allies in Colombia.

The Senate is expected to pass the same measure on Friday and send it to
President Clinton for his signature before Congress adjourns for the
weeklong July 4 recess.

Controversy has raged over the centerpiece of the legislation, $1.3 billion
in assistance to help train and equip Colombian Army and police forces. A
crucial component is a fleet of sophisticated transport and attack
helicopters to ferry Colombian troops.

Critics in both parties have warned that the aid to Colombia would be a
dangerous escalation in an unwinnable Vietnam-style conflict that has
already claimed thousands of lives in the past four decades.

But supporters, including Speaker J. Dennis Hastert and President Clinton,
have pushed hard to help an important Latin American ally stem the tide of
drugs flowing into the United States.

"If we're going to do anything to combat drugs, we must be responsive to the
people who have pledged to fight this plague," said Representative Sonny
Callahan, an Alabama Republican who heads the House Appropriations
Committee, which oversees foreign aid.

The bill would also finance the military's peacekeeping mission in Kosovo,
provide disaster relief to flood and wildfire victims in the United States
and make a down payment on a new Second Avenue subway in Manhattan.

House and Senate Republican leaders had bickered for months over how to
package the aid. The House passed a similar $12.7 billion omnibus bill in
late March, but Senator Trent Lott, the majority leader, balked at bundling
such a wide range of aid, fearing that it would be a magnet for pork-barrel
spending.

As the months dragged on with no action, the Pentagon warned that without
prompt financing, the armed services would have to begin canceling training
exercises. President Andres Pastrana of Colombia cautioned that the delay
was hurting his country's anti-drug efforts.

House and Senate negotiators finally worked out a compromise this week on
the size and scope of the package and tacked it on to a popular spending
bill for military construction projects. The final vote was 306 to 110, with
171 Republicans and 135 Democrats in favor, and 44 Republicans, 64 Democrats
and 2 independents against.

"With this funding, we will be able to support the courageous anti-drug
efforts of Colombia, which can, in turn, help curb the flow of drugs in our
nation," Mr. Clinton said in a statement.

House Republicans had also hoped to attach an amendment to permit the
limited sale of food and medicine to Cuba. But the language agreed upon by
House Republicans drew a filibuster threat from Senator Christopher J. Dodd,
Democrat of Connecticut, who said the legislation would do more harm than
good.

The Cuba amendment would bar public and private American financing for the
sale of food and medicine, and it would turn into law current regulations
that restrict which groups -- including relatives and educators -- can visit
Cuba.

"This is so wrong, so outrageous," said Mr. Dodd, who supports lifting
sanctions altogether. "Only poor and innocent people suffer when you bar
food and medicine."

The decision on Cuba leaves the amendment's future uncertain. House
Republicans said they now hoped to attach it to an agriculture spending bill
after the holiday recess, but if Democratic objections persist, the deal
could be in jeopardy.

The aid package also includes $2 billion to pay for costs the Pentagon has
incurred this year as part of the NATO mission in Kosovo. The bill provides
the military with $1.6 billion to cover rising fuel costs and $1.3 billion
to supplement its health care program.

Aid was not confined to foreign emergencies. The package has $661 million to
pay reconstruction costs for the 400 families in Los Alamos, N.M., who lost
their homes after the devastating fire there two months ago.

Also tucked in were odds and ends like $17.5 million to improve fire safety
in the Capitol, $4.5 million to reimburse the District of Columbia police
department for costs related to protests at the recent meetings of the
International Monetary Fund and $3 million toward a new Second Avenue subway
in Manhattan.

But easily the most contentious part of the package focused on the
antinarcotics aid to Colombia and other countries in the region, including
Ecuador and Bolivia. This assistance will lead to a much larger American
role in helping Colombia crack down on a flourishing narcotics trade in
rebel-controlled territory in the southern part of the country.

Critics assailed the Colombia aid as ill-conceived and a poor substitute for
financing more drug treatment and education programs in the United States.
"There is no 'exit' strategy," said Representative Mark Udall, Democrat of
Colorado. "There is no way to ensure farmers won't resume cultivating drug
crops once this billion-dollar assistance package dries up."

The package includes 18 Blackhawk helicopters and 42 Huey II helicopters
that are needed to ferry special Colombian Army battalions and Colombian
National Police. The mix of aircraft represents a compromise between the
House, which favored the larger, more expensive Blackhawks, and the Senate,
which wanted only the less costly Hueys.

To help address the critics' concerns about the Colombian military's poor
human rights record, the bill included $122 million for programs to promote
human rights and justice in the region, $29 million more than the
administration had requested.

With fears of an open-ended military commitment hanging heavy over many
members, the bill has a provision that limits the number of American
military personnel in support of the Colombia mission to 500 at any one
time, unless more are needed for a rescue mission.

"We are sending them helicopters, but not troops," said Representative Sam
Farr, Democrat of California, who lived in Colombia for two years as a Peace
Corps volunteer, "but only if they assure us that they will not violate
human rights."

The American aid is going to support an anti-drug plan that President
Pastrana announced last year, after working closely with United States
officials. The strategy, called Plan Colombia, seeks $3.5 billion in
international aid in the next three years. Beside the enforcement
components, the plan envisions public investment to stimulate Colombia's
economy.