Senate Leaders Trying to Keep Crime Bill Alive

Senate leaders, after an unsuccessful attempt to limit debate, scrambled Thursday to keep alive a politically sensitive anti-crime bill that includes a ban on 14 models of semiautomatic “assault weapons,” reinstatement of the federal death penalty and provisions to speed the execution of Death Row inmates.

Efforts to strike an agreement salvaging the bill are “going to take several days,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) said Thursday night.

“I think the chances are better than even that we can get an agreement,” he added.

After Democrats failed in an attempt to limit debate on scores of proposed amendments, Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) blamed Republicans and threatened to halt action on the measure.

In response, Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) accused Democrats of wanting to give up too soon, saying that a bill is “in the bag” if certain amendments can be offered.

With many senators campaigning for reelection this year and with opinion polls showing crime to be among voters’ top concerns, politics pervades the crime-fighting legislation. One overriding question has dominated debate: Who can be toughest on crime, Republicans or Democrats?

However, the bill, with its numerous provisions, poses an election year dilemma for many senators, especially Republicans. They want the measure to be passed because of its death penalty provisions, but some also want further chances to kill the gun ban, which was adopted last month by a one-vote margin.

The National Rifle Assn., which fiercely opposes gun restrictions, has sent out large-scale mailings urging members to pressure senators to drop the assault weapon ban.

“This vote sets America on the road to universal gun confiscation,” chief NRA lobbyist Wayne LaPierre declared in a letter, prompting a flood of protests to Senate offices.

Top NRA officers, attending the group’s national convention in Anaheim, Calif., hailed Thursday’s setback for the crime bill as a sign that the NRA is still a force on Capitol Hill, despite reports of waning influence.

The NRA’s official position was voiced by association lobbyist James Baker, who said that he had “mixed emotions” because the bill contains the gun ban on the one hand but toughened death penalty and sentencing provisions on the other.

More typical was the reaction of former NRA President Harlon Carter, who said: “If indeed the crime bill is dead, glory be!”

Controversy over the gun ban has taken the shape of a struggle over whether or not to limit the number of amendments to the over-all crime bill that will be debated and voted on.

In desperately trying to save the legislation, its Democratic and Republican supporters proposed a series of compromises acceptable to Mitchell: rapid debate on several remaining issues with no consideration of 330 pending amendments.

Later, a Republican caucus produced a counterproposal: consideration of 12 amendments from each party under strict time limits. Democrats were mulling over the offer Thursday night.

Partisan attempts to assign blame for “sinking” the anti-crime bill erupted Thursday immediately after the Senate failed by three votes to limit the number of amendments by imposing cloture.

“If there is one thing that’s clear, it is that Democrats want a crime bill,” Mitchell said. “We didn’t just talk about one. We voted for one . . . . It is not the majority leader who is taking this bill down. It is the Senate and, specifically, the senators who voted against cloture.”

Sixty votes were needed to limit debate to 30 hours and relevant amendments to about three dozen. On the 57-37 roll call, 46 Democrats and 11 Republicans voted for the limit. In opposition were 30 Republicans and seven Democrats; virtually all opposed either the gun ban or death penalty. Six senators were absent.

Mitchell contended that, with 330 amendments pending and no limit on debate, the Senate would be tied up for weeks with no prospect of ever passing a bill.

Dole said that he could produce two more votes for cloture--absentee Sens. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.) and John H. Chafee (R-R.I.)--leaving the Democrats needing only one more vote.

BACKGROUND

The anti-crime bill being fought over in the Senate originally was part of President Bush’s $1.2-billion package to fight crime. Bush’s plan, offered in May, 1989, called for reinstating the federal death penalty, more prison cells and law enforcement officers and restrictions on imported assault weapons. A rival plan was proposed by Democrats in January. Bush assailed that proposal, and, over the last six months, the Senate has been trying to agree on a compromise.

Staff writer Eric Lichtblau in Anaheim contributed to this story.