WASHINGTON, March 30 -- After two days of debate, the
House today approved a $12.7 billion emergency spending bill whose
centerpiece commits the United States to train and equip Colombia's
security forces to combat drug traffickers in a country where the
narcotics trade and guerrilla insurgency have blurred.

Not since the Central American civil wars of the 1980's has the United
States tried to throw such political, diplomatic and military backing
behind a crucial Latin American ally threatened by insurgency.

The bipartisan House vote today, 263 to 146, approved an emergency
package that also includes money for the Pentagon to pay for the
peacekeeping mission in Kosovo, and for flood disaster relief in North
Carolina.

But most significantly, the House has cast judgment on a plan backed
by the Clinton administration to spend $1.7 billion during two years
to help Colombia and other Andean countries, despite critics'
complaints that the anti-drug plan is ill-conceived and could drag the
United States into an open-ended conflict that has already cost tens
of thousands of lives during the past 40 years.

"This program will strengthen democratic government, the rule of law,
economic stability and human rights in that beleaguered country," said
Barry R. McCaffrey, the White House drug policy director.

For those who warned of a Vietnam-like quagmire, the House approved by
voice vote an amendment to limit American military personnel sent to
Colombia to 300 at any one time, unless more are needed for a rescue
mission. In promoting his amendment, Representative Gene Taylor, a
conservative Mississippi Democrat, said, "I expect they want American
kids to fight in the war they won't fight and American taxpayers to
pay for a war they won't pay for."

Aid to Colombia, which is the source of 90 percent of the cocaine and
65 percent of the heroin seized in the United States, was the main
lightning rod in the debate. But the overall spending measure that
includes the anti-drug program is imperiled in the Senate because of
opposition from the Senate's top two Republican leaders, Trent Lott of
Mississippi and Don Nickles of Oklahoma.

The two senators do not oppose the Kosovo or Colombia
aid.

But Mr. Lott has vowed to block the bill, saying it has become
"bloated" with pork and other non-urgent spending.

He wants to roll the most pressing aid proposals -- including those
for Kosovo and Colombia, as well as millions of dollars in flood
relief for North Carolina farmers -- into Congress's annual
appropriations process.

But the bill's proponents say that approach would postpone badly
needed aid for months, leaving disaster-stricken Americans in the
lurch and jeopardizing Washington's commitment to the fragile
democracy in Colombia, the hemispheric hub for narcotics.

Speaker J. Dennis Hastert made the anti-drug program one of his top
legislative priorities, and on Wednesday took to the House floor to
give a rare speech.

"We must act now," Mr. Hastert said. "We cannot wait. We have a
responsibility to stop drugs in Colombia, to stop them in transit, to
stop them at our border, and to stop them on our streets and in our
schools."

The Pentagon, which has been borrowing from other accounts to pay for
the Kosovo operation, says if it does not get $2 billion by late
April, the Army, in particular, will have to cancel training and
postpone maintenance, all steps that could hurt military readiness.

The lopsided vote today in the House and a brewing revolt by
influential Senate Republicans who favor the immediate dispatch of the
Kosovo and Colombia aid may force Mr. Lott to relent. Senator Ted
Stevens, an Alaska Republican who heads the Appropriations Committee,
said his panel would take up a $9 billion spending bill, which
includes the Kosovo aid, in the next few days.

The administration originally proposed a $5.2 billion emergency
spending bill, but the House Appropriations Committee added about $3.8
billion more earlier this month. Lawmakers on Wednesday night then
loaded on $4 billion more in additional military spending to cover
unanticipated costs of spare parts, military health care and safety
maintenance.

Among the spending plans in the House bill that the White House did
not request -- and Mr. Lott is grumbling about -- are $600 million to
repair highways and bridges, $75 million to spruce up NASA's fleet of
shuttles, and $20 million to build a new Food and Drug Administration
building in Los Angeles.

All but $421 million of the bill would be paid for from this year's
projected $26 billion non-Social Security surplus.

On the House floor today and Wednesday, lawmakers passionately debated
the plan to send $1.7 billion during two years to help Colombia, as
well as other Andean nations like Ecuador and Peru, step up its fight
against drug traffickers by reducing cocaine and heroin production.

The final vote today reflected divisions across party lines, both over
Colombia and the bill's ballooning cost: 143 Republicans and 119
Democrats voted in favor, while 61 Republicans and 84 Democrats voted
against.

Each side drew the vote of an independent.

Proponents of the aid package framed their debate not only in terms of
supporting an embattled Latin American ally, but also as a bold move
in the war on drugs in this country.

"How many more hundreds or thousands of our kids will get hooked on
drugs or die from overdoses?" said Representative C. W. Bill Young, a
Florida Republican who heads the House Appropriations Committee.

But critics warned that the United States was being drawn more deeply
into a convoluted civil conflict in Colombia, a country with two
leftist guerrilla armies fighting the government, right-wing
paramilitary forces fighting the guerrillas, and civilians trapped in
the middle.

The backbone of the aid package is 30 Blackhawk and 33 Huey
helicopters for the Colombian Army and police forces, as well as $470
million for the Colombian Army and $115.5 million for the police, that
would be used to train and equip three army battalions for anti-drug
operations, two of which would be new.

The measures also offer farmers incentives to grow other crops, and
finance programs to promote human rights and judicial reform, but that
did not assuage critics.

"We're getting involved in a civil war for which we're going to pay a
price," said Representative Jose E. Serrano, a New York Democrat.

Opponents also balked at giving the bulk of the aid to the Colombian
military, which has ties to paramilitaries implicated in human rights
abuses.

Given these objections, many critics said the aid would be better
served treating patients for drug abuse in this country.

"This doesn't really get to the heart of the matter: the drug problem
in our country," said Representative Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat.

"Some 5.5 million Americans need substance-abuse treatment, and only 2
million are getting it."

The overall spending bill also includes $143 million in emergency
economic aid to Balkan countries and other nations in southeast Europe.

Lawmakers, by a vote of 219 to 200, defeated an attempt to force
President Clinton to start withdrawing American troops from Kosovo
unless he certified that European NATO allies shoulder their share of
costs for international police, humanitarian aid and economic
reconstruction.

$470 million for the Colombian Army and $115.5 million for the police,
that would be used to train and equip three army battalions for
anti-drug operations, two of which would be new.

The measures also offer farmers incentives to grow other crops, and
finance programs to promote human rights and judicial reform, but that
did not assuage critics.