ATTORNEY GENERAL NOMINEEE HIRED ALIENS

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, January 15, 1993                   TAG: 9301150148
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A2   EDITION: STATE  
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short
ATTORNEY GENERAL NOMINEEE HIRED ALIENS
Attorney General-designate Zoe Baird's disclosure that she hired illegal aliens to take care of her son is unlikely to derail her nomination, key Democratic and Republican senators said Thursday.
A spokeswoman for President-elect Clinton said he knew of the matter when he named Baird. "It was fully disclosed," Dee Dee Myers said. "He considered it and did not think that it was a problem."
Senate Judiciary Chairman Joseph Biden told reporters that after consulting with other panel members he did "not believe this matter will prevent her confirmation as President Clinton's attorney general."
Baird, if confirmed, will oversee the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which enforces the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act.
Biden said Baird volunteered when they met last week that she had employed a couple who were in the United States illegally. He said he understood that she "similarly disclosed this information to others, including the FBI, at all stages of her confirmation."
On the Republican side, ranking GOP committee member Orrin Hatch of Utah expressed pleasure that Baird had told him of the situation and said he was "satisfied with her explanation."
"She asked for my support, and I intend to support her nomination," said Hatch. "I think she'll make a very fine attorney general."
Biden and Hatch said, however, that they were awaiting the FBI report being prepared for her confirmation hearings, scheduled for next week.
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB