Senate OKs Anti-Crime Package : Bill Expands Death Penalty, Targets Weapons, Dope, S

The Senate today approved a major anti-crime bill that would ban the import or manufacture of nine kinds of semiautomatic assault weapons and provide the death penalty for federal offenses ranging from assassination to treason.

“The scourge of the crime epidemic is strangling the life of our nation--the American people demand action,” Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) declared as the Senate approved the election-year measure, 94 to 6.

The bill now goes to the House, where a differing crime package is already on the drawing board.

Before approving the measure, the Senate added fresh provisions designed to combat savings and loan fraud.

The bill would also limit Death Row appeals with an eye toward ending delays of a decade or more in carrying out executions. But states would have to provide free lawyers to carry out the appeals.

Other provisions would toughen the nation’s money-laundering laws, increase aid for local law enforcement, strengthen federal investigative agencies, expand funding for “boot camp” prisons and create a “police corps” scholarship program for peace officers.

And the bill calls for penalties for using and dealing in the new drug “ice” and adds steroids to the list of controlled substances.

The Bush Administration had been cool to the measure, in part because of provisions banning the import or domestic manufacture of nine kinds of semiautomatic assault weapons. The Administration prefers a limit on the size of ammunition clips.

The traditionally influential National Rifle Assn. is also mapping out a fresh campaign to erase the gun provisions.

As the Senate prepared to act, Judiciary Chairman Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) called it the “toughest, most comprehensive crime bill in our history.”

The package calls for an additional $162 million for what Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) called “cracking down on an orgy of fraud and lawbreaking that occurred in the savings and loan crisis.” It provides for life terms for S & L fraud “kingpins” and rewards of up to $300,000 for S & L whistle-blowers.

The House Judiciary Committee is working on its own version of comprehensive crime legislation.

That measure does not contain major firearms provisions, but the House panel already has approved a firearms bill that is awaiting floor action. It could easily be combined with the crime measure, congressional aides said.

The House gun bill would outlaw domestic semiautomatic weapons that fail to meet the “sporting purposes” test under which a number of firearms manufactured overseas are now kept out of the country.