THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 24, 1994 TAG: 9408240510
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LOS ANGELES TIMES
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines
At least 41 Republican senators, enough to block passage of a $30 billion crime bill, asked President Clinton on Tuesday to negotiate major changes in the bill that passed the House and now is the center of a heated battle in the Senate.
The demand came as the debate grew increasingly bitter and partisan - a return to the normal mode of recent business in Congress after a brief respite Sunday, when a bipartisan coalition in the House passed its version of the crime bill.
A total of 40 senators signed a letter to Minority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan., saying that unless Clinton and the Democratic leadership agreed to address most of their objections, they would support Dole in voting for a procedural motion to open the legislation to amendment. The number was significant because 41 votes, including Dole's, are what is needed to prevail on the arcane ``point of order.''
The letter originated after Clinton made an appeal to Sen. John W. Warner late Monday night. Clinton asked Virginia's senior Republican for help in overcoming a threatened GOP impasse. The letter forestalled a procedural vote that would have scuttled the crime bill.
``As of this moment,'' Warner said, ``the strategy is that the Republicans will offer to sit down and negotiate a package of amendments with the Democrats to improve and strengthen the crime bill and to remove . . . healthy slices of pork.''
However, there were doubts about whether all of those senators who signed the letter would actually vote for the procedural measure, even if Democrats refused to negotiate. Some Republicans fear that they would be branded as obstructionists on an issue that is at the top of the American public's agenda.
Indeed, by the time Dole formally presented the letter to Majority Leader George J. Mitchell, D-Maine, he broached the idea of allowing votes on amendments, rather than holding full-blown negotiations to rewrite the bill.
Mitchell rejected that. Any amendments on the Senate floor could threaten the bill's survival by upsetting the delicate balance of political interests that came together to pass the bill in the House.
If the legislation were amended, it would require approval again by the House, where the majority that passed the bill the first time is a fragile coalition whose balance could easily be upset by any change in the measure.
``This reopens the process in a manner that sends the matter back to the House and an indefinite future,'' Mitchell said. ``One could infer that never-ending changes represent one way to kill the bill.''
Mitchell offered a counterproposal, under which the bill would be approved and changes could be written into future legislation. Dole deemed the idea unacceptable.
Thus, as the Senate debated into the night, the bill was at a legislative standoff, with neither side sure it had the votes it needed.
The showdown vote could come as early as today.
Dole and other Republicans denied that the bill's ban on 19 types of assault-style weapons was the source of their objections, and said they were resigned to defeat on the issue. Instead, they said the legislation was too heavy on social spending disguised as crime prevention funds, and too light on punishment for violent crimes and drug offenses. MEMO: Staff writer Alec Klein contributed to this report.
by CNB