Senate Votes to Renew Law Giving Powers to Independent Counsels

The Senate voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to renew the law authorizing independent counsels to investigate allegations of wrongdoing by senior government officials after rejecting, 49 to 46, an attempt to make it apply to members of Congress.

By an 85-10 vote, the Senate approved the bill, which the Reagan Administration has attacked as unconstitutional. The law will expire in January unless Congress renews it.

The Senate legislation, which would extend the law for five years, will go to a congressional conference committee to resolve differences with a measure approved by the House.

For instance, the House bill permits the independent counsel to go directly to a special court to seek expansion of its investigation, whereas the Senate bill declares that the attorney general is the final decision maker in that area.

The Justice Department has announced that it will recommend that President Reagan veto the legislation.

Justice officials say the law improperly gives the independent counsel powers that the Constitution assigns exclusively to the attorney general.

The same argument has been voiced in numerous legal challenges to the statute made by defendants in cases being pursued by several independent counsels.

The law was first enacted in 1978 after President Richard M. Nixon’s effort to squelch investigation of the Watergate scandal in 1973.