Drug Bill Filibuster in Senate Unchecked

Congress’ drive to pass broad anti-drug legislation stalled Wednesday when Senate leaders failed to muster enough votes to choke off a potentially fatal filibuster against the bill’s death penalty provision.

Opponents and supporters of the death penalty huddled in the office of Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) to discuss their options for reviving the bill after the Senate fell two votes short of the 60 needed to cut off debate. The tally was 58 to 38.

Because Congress expects to adjourn by the end of the week, a time-consuming filibuster almost certainly would kill the measure.

‘Gorilla on Our Side’

Thus, although the anti-death penalty forces remain a badly outnumbered minority in the Senate,”we’ve got a 500-pound gorilla on our side at the moment,” said Sen. Daniel J. Evans (R-Wash.), a leader of the assault against the capital punishment provision.

The $1.7-billion drug bill, which has gone through several transformations in the last few weeks, ranks as one of Capitol Hill’s top political priorities, in part because this is an election year that has produced few strong national issues.

Government studies show that overall drug use has leveled off over the last few years, but public concern about narcotics has intensified with the cocaine-related deaths of prominent athletes Len Bias and Don Rogers, as well as the availability of dangerous new drugs, such as the cocaine derivative known as “crack.”

The bill seeks to address the problem by stiffening penalties for drug crimes, beefing up law enforcement and investing hundreds of millions of dollars in drug education and treatment programs.

Its most controversial provision would allow capital punishment for drug “kingpins” whose illegal operations cause a death.

House Passage Uncertain

While the capital punishment amendment appeared doomed in the Senate, it was uncertain whether the bill could pass in the House without it. Rep. George W. Gekas (R-Pa.) said that, unless the bill contains the threat of a death penalty, it would amount to “a useless gesture . . . simply throwing money at the problem, which Congress usually reverts to in times of crisis.” The death penalty amendment had passed the House twice, both times with broad bipartisan support.

One option being considered by Senate leaders is lessening the punishment to a mandatory life sentence without parole.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) told reporters that such a “quick fix” would open a whole new set of troubling issues of its own and should not be written into law without careful consideration.

But others who had fought the death penalty said that mandatory life sentencing might prove an acceptable compromise. “Given the alternatives, we would not oppose it,” said Jerry J. Berman, chief legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union.

The bill already is much milder than the measure initially approved by the heavily Democratic House, where all 435 seats are up for election in November.

Among the House-passed amendments that have been discarded under pressure from the Senate are provisions that would have ordered the military to chase and arrest drug smugglers and allowed courts to use illegally obtained evidence under certain circumstances.

“The House obviously was thundering toward a bill that had all sorts of major problems,” Evans said.

California Sen. Alan Cranston, a Democrat who generally has opposed the death penalty, voted with those who sought to leave it in the bill in Wednesday’s vote. A spokesman said Cranston, who is in a battle for reelection, “feels the drug bill is an important bill and should be brought to a vote,” even though it contains the capital punishment provision.

Defeat Tied to Absences

The defeat occurred in part because senators have been failing to show up for votes in the waning days of the session.

At least two Republican senators who face tough reelection fights skipped the vote Wednesday to remain in their home states to campaign. One of them, Sen. Steven D. Symms (R-Ida.), had indicated earlier that he would have supported the move to cut off debate if he had been present, which would have left it only one vote short.

Louisiana Democrats Russell B. Long and J. Bennett Johnston said they sided with the death penalty opponents because they object to an unrelated provision in the bill that would allow taxpayers to donate parts of their tax refunds to the anti-drug effort through a checkoff system.

Long argued that the additional checkoff would “confuse and dilute the effectiveness” of the existing checkoff for contributions to presidential campaigns.

“This thing shouldn’t be used for charities,” he said.