FEDERAL DEBT COLLECTION STRENGTHENED

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

DATE: TUESDAY, April 6, 1993                   TAG: 9304060094
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short
FEDERAL DEBT COLLECTION STRENGTHENED
The Supreme Court gave the federal government more opportunities Monday to collect interest on debts owed to it by states.
Ruling 8-1 in a Texas dispute, the court said a 1982 federal law did not cancel the government's traditional power to collect interest on state contractual debts.
That law "tightened the screws, so to speak" on private debtors' obligation to pay interest to the federal government, Chief Justice William Rehnquist wrote for the court.
"But it does not at all follow that because Congress did not tighten the screws on the states, it therefore intended that the screws be entirely removed," Rehnquist said. "The more logical conclusion is that it left the screws in place, untightened."
Government lawyers said the decision would affect various federal grant programs in which alleged overpayments or misspending occur.
In other action Monday, the court:
Let stand the bribery and conspiracy convictions of a federal judge in Louisiana and his accomplice. U.S. District Judge Robert F. Collins and businessman John Ross were convicted in 1991 of taking $100,000 from a convicted drug smuggler who wanted a lenient sentence.
Rejected Argentina's attempt to kill a lawsuit by a man who says military officers tortured him and seized his family business in 1976 because he is Jewish.
Dismissed a murder case that might have led to an important ruling on police conduct in questioning criminal suspects. The case became moot when the murder suspect was killed last month in the District of Columbia.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB