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Senators agree on anti-terror bill
10/04/2001
By JESSE J. HOLLAND WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats and the Bush administration reached
agreement Wednesday on a package of new police powers to combat terrorism. A
House committee sent its own compromise package to the full House for approval.
Key Democratic and Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee
worked with the White House and Justice Department to come up with a compromise
bill after negotiations fell apart Tuesday over how much secret grand jury
evidence could be shared with intelligence agencies. ``These have been complex and difficult negotiations, but after much hard
effort we have completed work on this bipartisan agreement,'' said Senate
Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. Leahy and Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, the top Judiciary Republican, declined to
give details of the compromise. But Hatch said the ``agreement takes into
account each of our principled beliefs and is based on our views on the proper
balance between the role of law enforcement and our civil liberties.'' Senators refused to include an expiration date on the laws, unlike the House,
which would have the most of the new laws expire at the beginning of 2004, said
Senate aides speaking on the condition of anonymity. Senators, in negotiation
with the White House, also threw out the Justice Department's proposal to allow
officials to hold immigrants suspected of terrorism indefinitely without filing
charges, aides said. The House bill would reduce the time to one week. The Senate also allows nationwide jurisdiction for electronic surveillance
devices and legal expansion of those devices to e-mail and Internet and
authorization for the use of ``roving'' wiretaps — in which officials get orders
allowing them to tap whatever telephone a person uses — under the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act, the aide said. The compromise also modifies the Justice Department's request to deport
immigrants if they raise or give money to known terrorist organizations or to
organizations they should have known committed terrorist acts. Sen. Edward
Kennedy, D-Mass., won a change to the law that gives immigrants a chance to
prove that they didn't know their solicitations would further terrorist
activities, the aides said. Senate Majority Leader Thomas Daschle, D-S.D., said he wanted to have the
final bill on the floor of the Senate for debate before the end of next week. He
also said that he would try to attach money-laundering legislation that up until
the Sept. 11 terrorism attacks had been opposed by the administration. President Bush and Attorney General John Ashcroft have been prodding Congress
for quick action on measures that would make it easier for authorities to detain
terrorism suspects and monitor their communications. Meanwhile, the House prepared to act early next week on its own version of
the legislation, which weakens some of the police powers Ashcroft sought and
would have the laws expire in January 2004. The House Judiciary Committee
approved its compromise version 36-0 late Wednesday and sent it on to the full
House. House Democratic leader Dick Gephardt of Missouri said he also expected
the House bill to come up before next Friday. The bill does strengthen the hand of investigators in several areas,
including their ability to conduct electronic surveillance in anti-terrorism
cases. It also stiffens penalties for several terrorist offenses, and extends
the statute of limitations on terrorism cases. On another front, it gives authorities the ability to hold aliens suspected
of terrorist acts for seven days without filing charges, an increase from the
current two days. ``The left is not completely happy with the bill and neither is the right,''
said House Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis. ``It certainly doesn't
represent the Justice Department's wish list. I think this means we've got it
just about right.'' The committee added several amendments to the bill Wednesday, including a
provision to allow people to sue the government if information gathered with the
bill's new electronic surveillance powers is leaked to the public. ``I'm trying to increase the negative incentive for this kind of leaking,''
said Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass. The House bill number is HR 2975. On the Net: U.S. House: http://www.house.gov U.S. Senate: http://www.senate.gov for bill text: http://thomas.loc.gov
Associated Press Writer