THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, April 18, 1996 TAG: 9604180373
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 98 lines
The Senate overwhelmingly approved an anti-terrorism bill Wednesday - two days before the anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing - after turning aside Democratic attempts to expand federal law enforcement powers.
The vote was 91-8 on the House-Senate compromise bill that now moves to the House, where it is expected to win approval by Friday. President Clinton has indicated he will sign the measure, even though it excludes several provisions initially requested by his administration.
The legislation would limit federal appeals by death-row inmates and other prisoners and provide for the death penalty in certain international terrorism cases and for killing a federal employee because of the employee's work.
``We have a measure that will give us a strong upper hand in the battle to prevent and punish domestic and international terrorism,'' said Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
Clinton, pressing Congress for action on strong anti-terrorism legislation, reminded lawmakers in his radio address Saturday that after the April 19, 1995, Oklahoma bombing that killed 168 people, they promised to finish the measure in six weeks.
The bill restores some administration-backed law enforcement powers eliminated by House members, such as barring fund raising by foreign terrorist groups, but it omits others. And the Senate rejected every attempt by Democrats to restore more of them Wednesday.
The American Civil Liberties Union - which joined with the National Rifle Association in successfully persuading the House to strip its original bill of many law enforcement provisions - urged House members Wednesday to vote against the compromise bill. It warned of ``dangerous and largely hidden changes'' that would expand government wiretap powers, among other things.
However, the NRA was not joining in the criticism this time.
``We believe this bill now strikes a critical balance between protecting constitutional liberties and protecting Americans from terroristic activities,'' said Tanya Metaksa, the NRA's chief lobbyist, in an interview from Dallas where the association is holding its annual meeting.
And Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga., who led the effort to delete many provisions from the House measure, strongly supported the compromise bill's passage in an appearance before the House Rules Committee Wednesday.
Among the key provisions backed by the administration and dropped in the compromise measure was one making it easier to wiretap phones of suspected terrorists, something already allowed in organized crime probes.
The Senate voted 58-40 against sending the measure back to a conference committee to restore the provision after its author, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, warned that such a move would kill the bill.
Hatch, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he would try to ``get this done one way or the other'' in separate legislation. MEMO: HIGHLIGHTS
The House-Senate compromise anti-terrorism bill would:
Limit appeals to federal courts by prisoners, including death row
inmates.
Make it a federal crime to commit an international terrorist attack
in the United States, punishable by execution if a death occurred.
Make using the United States as a base to plan a terrorist attack
overseas a federal crime.
Make it a federal offense to kill or try to kill any federal employee
or former employee because of that person's work, punishable by
execution if a death occurred.
Require convicted criminals to pay restitution to their victims.
Give the executive branch authority to designate foreign terrorist
groups - subject to congressional and judicial review - and let the
government freeze assets of foreign terrorists before the designation
becomes public.
Ban fund raising for foreign terrorist organizations.
Expedite deportation of alien terrorists, allowing secret evidence to
be used while disclosing only an unclassified version to the alien.
Bar from the country members or representatives of foreign terrorist
groups.
Allow U.S. citizens to sue foreign states for acts of terrorism.
Require courts to provide closed-circuit television coverage of
proceedings to the original venue, when a trial is moved away from the
scene of a crime. The provision was prompted by the move of the Oklahoma
City bombing trial to Denver.
Require plastic explosives to carry markers that can be traced and
require a study on such identifiers for other explosives.
Facilitate deportation of criminal aliens.
Authorize $1 billion for federal and state law enforcement over four
years.
HOW THEY VOTED
A ``yes'' vote is a vote to pass the bill.
John W. Warner, R-Va. Yes
Charles S. Robb, D-Va. Yes
Jesse A. Helms, R-N.C. Yes
Lauch Faircloth, R-N.C. Yes
KEYWORDS: ANTI-TERRORISM TERRORISM U.S. SENATE by CNB