CUT IN FOREIGN AID BILL

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28359, 19 August 1957, Page 11

CUT IN FOREIGN AID BILL

Problems Faced By Mr Eisenhower

(N.Z Press Association—Copyngtit) (Rec. 9 pan.) WASHINGTON, August 17. President Eisenhower is expected to ask Congress ags.in next week to put down its economy axt and agree to his foreign aid spending programme for 1957-58. The programme has been whittled down in stages by Congress in the closing days of a session noteworthy for renewed Budget-cutting zeal, as well as for the mounting hostility of the opposition Democrats to a Republican President. Ignoring three emergency appeals from Mr Eisenhower this week, the House of Representatives slashed the foreign aid appropriations to 3,191,810,000 dollars. The bill now goes to the Senate.

The appropriations fell 809.650,000 dollars below the President’s minimum request and the task facing Mr Eisenhower now is to persuade the Senate to restore the funds which he said he considered vital for global defence. So seriously does the President view the Congressional rebuff that a direct appeal to the nation is not ruled out by Administration sources in Washington. The Senate Appropriations Committee will meet on Monday tp study the reduced appropriations bill passld by the House. A Reuter correspondent said that indications were mounting that the committee or the Senate itself later would restore some of the money, but not to the level which the President insists is the minimum for safety. If he were rebuffed again, the President would be faced with a choice between alternatives described by friend and foe as politically distasteful. The first was to bow to the will of Congress and announce that he was prepared to operate the foreign aid programme for the next 12 months with a reduced budget. This was described as an impossible choice for a President who has selected foreign aid spending as a major test of strength with Congress. The second alternative was for the President to carry out his warning that he might call a special session of Congress within a few months unless the cuts are restored. The political dangers involved in this alternative were that Congress might not hesitate to reject a request for new appropriations. “Intense Opposition”

. The intensity, of the opposition to the foreign aid proposals and other priority items in the President’s legislative programme is stronger now than at any time since Mr Eisenhower assumed office in 1953, in the opinion of observers today. The Reuter correspondent said one major factor was the Democratic Party’s determination to retain controltfof Congress in next year’s elections and to recapture the White House in the Presidential election in 1960. Senator Richard Russell (Democrat, Georgia) said today he would oppose any move to restore part of the reduction in foreign aid when the Senate takes up the programme, in spite of the Administration’s warnings that without the money, guided missiles and other modern weapons could not be sent to Allied countries. Government officials also said test night that the cut would hamper efforts to keep Soviet influence from gaining in many areas Senator Russell, leader of the Southern bloc and a power on the Senate Appropriations Committee which will consider the Aid Bill next Monday, said he did not think the House cuts too severe. “The House Bill, with the carry-over funds, gives the programme more than can be spent, and I know more than should be spent, in the current fiscal year.” Senator Russell said.