Killed by Compromise

The cream-colored doors of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee room swung open and the weary members of a Senate House conference committee emerged after six days of bargaining. They left behind Arkansas' Democrat William Fulbright to face newsmen. Fulbright spoke slowly, somberly. The conference committee, he said, had at last arrived at a compromise agreement for the U.S. foreign aid program. As Fulbright briefly described the terms of that agreement, it appeared outwardly to be a considerable victory for the Kennedy Administration. Actually, it was by far the Administration's most serious legislative defeat this session.

Convinced that foreign aid cannot be fully effective so long as it remains on a hand-to-mouth, year-by-year basis, President Kennedy had thrown all his resources into an effort for a fiveyear, $8.8 billion program, with authorization to borrow the money from the U.S. Treasury rather than return to Congress each year for appropriations. Last week's conference committee did "authorize" a $7.2 billion foreign aid program for the next five years. return to the Congress each year for the appropriations that would make the authority meaningful. This, as the Administration well knew, meant that foreign aid would remain on an inadequate, unstable, short-term basis.

Balance of Strength. The defeat came after a long, hard struggle. Last month the Senate overwhelmingly approved almost everything that President Kennedy had wanted. And before the approving vote, the Senate handily defeated an amendment (which the Administration called totally unacceptable), sponsored by Virginia's purse-conscious Democrat Harry Byrd, which would have granted authority for the five-year program, but would have placed its financing on an annual basis.

The House was much tougher. There, a coalition of Republicans and Southern Democrats, long hostile to any move that might be taken as a dilution of the Congress' constitutional power of the purse, held the balance of strength. The House voted only for a one-year, $1.2 billion foreign aid program.

The Administration's hopes then rested with the conference committee that was appointed to resolve House-Senate differences. That committee was filled with friends of foreign aid, could have been persuaded to recommend a three-year program with the necessary financing. But such a recommendation seemed unlikely to get through the House as a whole--particularly after national Republican Leaders Richard Nixon and Nelson Rock efeller (who made an apparent turnabout from his previous public stands) had announced their support of annual foreign aid appropriations.

Outstretched Hand. At that point, the Administration capitulated. On the recommendation of Larry O'Brien, the White

House legislative liaison chief (TIME cover, Sept. 1), President Kennedy asked Arkansas' Fulbright to accept the five-year authorization with yearly appropriations. It was a bitter pill for Fulbright, but he could only agree to the President's decision and return to explain it to the conference committee at Capitol Hill. Both the House and the Senate swiftly approved the committee's report, and the White House announced that the foreign aid bill, as passed, was "wholly satisfactory." But Bill Fulbright knew better. Walking across the Senate floor last week, he held out his hand to Harry Byrd, the arch-opponent of long-term foreign aid financial commitments. "Congratulations, Harry," said Fulbright. "You won."

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