Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, August 18, 1994 TAG: 9408180126
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Newsday
DATELINE: WASHINGTON NOTE: BELOW LENGTH: Medium
The three Congressional Black Caucus members, all Democrats, provided the first votes Clinton managed to turn a week after a humiliating defeat on a procedural test that blocked the bill in the House. Democratic congressional leaders now predict a vote on a crime bill could take place as early as Friday or Saturday.
But officials said the legislation would be a reconfigured version of the bill considered last week, with less money for ``prevention'' programs such as midnight basketball leagues, more money for prisons and police, toughened language to monitor sexual offenders and a weakened ban on assault-style weapons.
``For the first time in a while, there's movement,'' said Rep. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., a key player on the crime bill. ``For the first time in a while, I am somewhat more optimistic that we can get a bill, particularly a bill ... that's quite close to the original bill.''
But in a reminder of the obstacles ahead, Senate Judiciary Chairman Joseph Biden, D-Del., went to the Senate floor late Wednesday to denounce point-by-point Republican objections to the original bill. The prospective changes would require going back to the House-Senate conference committee, of which Biden is co-chairman.
Still under discussion was precisely what changes should be made and what parliamentary procedures could be used to make them.
Nonetheless, a new sense of momentum came after the White House abandoned its original strategy of trying to fan public outrage against House members who defeated the rule that would have brought the crime bill up for a vote. Five days of presidential exhortation managed mostly to swamp White House and congressional switchboards with calls from supporters of the National Rifle Association, officials conceded.
Instead, Clinton and White House chief of staff Leon Panetta agreed late Tuesday to squelch the rhetoric and open negotiations with wayward Democrats and triumphant Republicans about what changes in the bill would win over the eight votes needed to get approval of the rule. Then, the bill itself is expected to pass easily.
Rangel, emerging from a morning meeting between Clinton and seven members of the Congressional Black Caucus, was the first. While he continues to oppose the bill's expansion of the death penalty, Rangel said ministers in his Harlem-based district had persuaded him to vote to bring the bill to the floor for consideration, though he still intends to vote against the bill itself.
``He was listening and selling his presidency, the party, and the fact that we will not get a better bill than this,'' Rangel said of Clinton.
by CNB