In Race to Adjourn, Cranston Finishes Out of the Money

Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) came up a penny, nickel, dime, quarter and half-dollar short early Sunday in his bid to push a coin-redesign bill through Congress.

After failing to attach the measure to a landmark housing bill that he co-authored, Cranston tried in the waning hours before adjournment to tack it on to a pair of smaller bills. But the effort went for naught.

New York socialite Diane Wolf, 36, a frequent companion of the 76-year-old senator and the daughter of a wealthy Texas oilman and a member of the federal Commission on Fine Arts, has lobbied actively for the bill, which calls for redesigning the reverse side of the penny, nickel, dime, quarter and half-dollar. The reverse side is opposite the profiles of U.S. Presidents.

Rep. Henry B. Gonzalez (D-Tex.), co-author of the housing bill, said that he had moved to prevent Cranston’s coin measure from being added to his legislation. “I believe in following the regular order,” Gonzalez said, referring to rules that are intended to exclude provisions not germane to a bill.

Cranston also sought to insert the coin bill in the $490-billion deficit-reduction package passed by Congress on Saturday, but that move was thwarted by Rep. Leon E. Panetta (D-Carmel Valley), the House Budget Committee chairman.

The bill would have required the Treasury secretary, in selecting new designs, to choose from several “constitutional concepts”: freedom of speech and assembly, freedom of the press, the right to due process of law, the right to a trial by jury, the right to equal protection under the law, the right to vote and “the constitutional principle of separation of powers, including the independence of the judiciary.”

The legislation died with the adjournment of the 101st Congress, although it could be reintroduced when the new Congress convenes in January.