WASHINGTON -- Both Florida senators joined North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms on Thursday in introducing a bill that would provide $100 million in federal donations of food and medicine to aid the Cuban people.

Helms, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the proposed Cuban Solidarity Act would leave the U.S. trade ban intact while adding ``a new dimension'' to U.S. policy toward Cuba in the wake of Pope John Paul II's visit to the island in January.

``With the enactment of this legislation, U.S. policy will no longer be simply to isolate the Cuban regime, but to actively support those working to bring about change inside Cuba,'' Helms said at a press conference.

Drawing a parallel between the government of President Fidel Castro and the military regime in Poland in the early 1980s, Helms said an objective of his bill is to force the Clinton administration to take a ``proactive'' stance in support of Cuba's internal opposition, ``just as the U.S. supported the Solidarity Movement in Poland during the 1980s.''

The bill's backers, who include 21 Senate co-sponsors and the Cuban American National Foundation, intend to make available up to $25 million a year to the Cuban branch of the Roman Catholic relief agency Caritas or another independent group, to distribute to any Cubans who are not government officials.

If Castro permits such aid to flow, Florida's Democratic Sen. Bob Graham said, it would ease Cubans' hardship, undermine a form of government control over average citizens and strengthen civil society. If Castro rejects the aid -- as he has already said he would -- then he will be able to blame U.S. economic sanctions for Cuba's moribund economy.

``It is our hope that Castro will respond to this initiative and will do as the Pope asked and open up to the world,'' Graham said.

Florida's Republican Sen. Connie Mack also voiced support for the bill, including a provision that calls for U.S. government broadcasts to Cuba from the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

``One of the main ways we can support the fight for democracy is by getting information into Cuba and overcome Castro's blockade on independent information,'' Mack said.