Bush to Ask $1 Billion for New Prisons, No Assault Rifle Ban

As part of a sweeping anti-crime package to be unveiled today, President Bush will seek $1 billion in funding for prison construction to house 26,000 new federal prisoners over the next four years but has decided to postpone any new attempt to outlaw assault rifles, Administration officials said Sunday.

A senior White House aide told reporters traveling in Kentucky with the President that the Administration would advocate a “hard look” as to whether additional steps might be needed to restrict domestic production of the weapons. Other officials said that in the meantime the Administration will rely on an existing law that bars entry only to foreign-made weapons not suitable for sporting purposes.

The exclusion of an assault rifle ban from the package represents a decision by the White House to emphasize traditional programs aimed at reducing crime rather than more controversial forays into gun control.

Officials said White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu had played a central role in blocking efforts to address assault guns directly, which had initially been advocated by national drug policy director William J. Bennett and other Administration officials.

The decision also represents a victory by the National Rifle Assn., which had lobbied ferociously in an effort to block any new assault gun legislation. In the face of that effort, a number of members of Congress had warned the White House that they would have difficulty supporting any initiative opposed by the powerful organization.

“I think you could say that politics won out,” one source said.

In settling on the final terms of the crime package, White House officials also decided not to declare a national “crime emergency,” as had been seriously considered. “The crime figures just didn’t support that kind of declaration,” one Administration official said.

More Prosecutors, Agents

The dramatic boost in prison space sought by the Administration is the central element in a proposal that also calls for 1,600 additional federal prosecutors, 800 more law enforcement agents and a widening of the federal death penalty to include hard-core repeat offenders convicted of using firearms to commit murder. The 800 new personnel include 300 FBI agents and 150 U.S. marshals.

The package would also toughen the penalties for a number of firearms-related crimes, including crimes committed while using an assault weapon. All are part of an effort to deter criminals by making more certain that they would face stringent penalties if convicted.

Officials put the overall cost of the package at $1.7 billion but said the initiative would require no new funds to be allocated by Congress. “This is just money being moved around,” one source said.

The bulk of the proposal is to be funded through sales of federal properties and the use of funds generated by the sale of assets seized from criminals, officials said.

As an additional cost-saving measure, they said the Administration would seek to convert some recently shut military bases into the new penitentiaries.

Cost Called Cheap

Only with such innovative measures, one official indicated, could the White House hope to create 26,000 jail spaces for $1 billion. Under a generally accepted formula for the cost of prison construction, the price tag would be about double that amount.

In addition to emphasizing prison construction and other crime deterrence measures, Bush will address the assault gun issue indirectly by calling for restrictions on the size of ammunition magazines that can be sold, one official said.

Assault rifles are known in part for their large magazines, some of which can hold up to 30 cartridges, which help to give them a paramilitary appearance.

In addition, officials said, Bush plans to advocate mandatory minimum sentences for criminals who use guns and a five-year ban on sales of weapons to anyone convicted of a crime punishable by six months or more of incarceration.

Officials said Bush also plans to declare that the current temporary import ban on more than 30 types of assault weapons--imposed March 14 at the urging of Bennett--will be made permanent after the Treasury Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms completes an investigation into how the weapons are generally used.

1968 Law on Importation

But they said Bush would favor an import ban only on the weapons that the agency determines are not generally used for hunting, target shooting and other sporting purposes.

Such action is required under a 1968 law, which authorizes the importation into the United States only of weapons “generally recognized as suitable for sporting purposes.”

“We’ll see what definitions these weapons fall under,” Andrew H. Card Jr., deputy White House chief of staff, told reporters in Lexington, Ky.

Although officials provided few specific details about the package Sunday, their identification of seized criminal assets as a major source of prison funding raised questions about how other agencies that now rely on the funds would be affected.

Of the $220 million in funds generated last year from assets seized from criminals--most of them drug dealers--$110 million was returned to state and local agencies as a reward for their law enforcement role. Another $90 million went to federal efforts by the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. attorneys and other agencies.

Beginning next year, about $115 million of the fund will be directly controlled by Bennett’s office, which has already agreed to divert it to prison construction. But other agencies might have to look elsewhere for funding if prison construction is given top priority.