Administration Reported Ready for Compromise on Aid Bill

The Foreign Military Assistance bill on which Israel, Egypt. Syria and Jordan along with close to 50 other countries look to bolster their economies, continued today to run a course of complexities that makes its ultimate result still uncertain. Both President Ford and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, however, have indicated, according to Sen. Clifford Case (R.NJ). movements in the direction of legislation that would assist Israel to meet its defense requirements.

Case said that at a meeting yesterday at the White House, the President showed signs of willingness to compromise on the funding for the transitional quarter between the current fiscal year ending June 30 and the new fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. The President had previously declared that he would veto any appropriation beyond his recommendations for the aid program and specifically financing for the transitional quarter.

Rumsfeld said, in a letter to Case, who read it to the Senate yesterday, that the current U.S. budget proposals to aid Israel with $2.5 billion for arms and services for the 1976-77 period are not enough. Rumsfeld wrote Case that Defense Department forecasts show “Israel will need substantially more than $2.5 billion to meet payments coming due” because Israel has to pay for arms well in advance of deliveries.

SENATE ACTION DELAYED

Rumsfeld wrote that Defense Department projections show Israel will be short about $765 million. Israel estimates a shortfall of $1.6 billion. Case pointed out to the Senate that on the basis of Rumsfeld’s letter, the decision by Congress to authorize transitional quarter funding “conforms to the finding of the Department of Defense and Israel’s military needs and her shortage of funds to pay for the equipment.”

Case’s disclosure came when the Senate began consideration of its 27-month authorization bill for the aid program. However, the Senate was bogged down today on anti-trust legislation that caused a postponement of further discussion of foreign aid. The House yesterday adopted a 27-month bill that authorizes the policy aspects of the program but the appropriation legislation to fund it probably will not be taken up until the week of June 14, little more than two weeks before the current fiscal year ends. President Ford vetoed the authorization bill approved by Congress for this fiscal year largely over the limits on arms sales and features on human rights and anti-discrimination provisions that he said inhibited Presidential powers. The House bill and the one pending in the Senate, have been drafted with Administration experts’ support to meet some of the President’s objections, but whether he considers the modification acceptable is uncertain.