Senate Rejects Funds for Police Hiring

The Senate on Monday night thwarted an attempt by Republicans to use the bulk of a $3.3-billion anti-crime bill to put more police officers on the streets.

By a vote of 49 to 39, the Senate killed an amendment by Sen. Warren B. Rudman (R-N.H.) that would have set aside $2.2 billion for a program of direct aid to help states, counties, cities and towns hire more officers.

Rudman argued that not enough of the money in the omnibus crime bill was going to localities where the crimes are being committed. The money would have been disbursed on the basis of a community’s population.

Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), chairman of the Judiciary Committee and chief sponsor of the omnibus crime bill, opposed Rudman’s proposal.

“Roughly two-thirds of the states are under court orders for prison overcrowding,” Biden said. “Many dangerous felons are being released early because there’s insufficient prison space . . . . What they (local police officers) want is to get these recidivists off the streets.”

The Senate was in its third week of work on the crime bill, and leaders hoped to finish it by week’s end. Before the Fourth of July recess, senators voted, 67 to 32 , to require background checks of handgun purchasers within five working days. The Bush Administration has embraced many provisions of the bill without giving it an outright endorsement.