Senate Panel Unanimously Backs Reno : Cabinet: Judiciary Committee members from both parties praise the qualifications and performance of the attorney general nominee.

Janet Reno’s nomination as the nation’s first female attorney general was unanimously approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, as Republican and Democratic panel members hailed her qualifications and performance during two days of hearings.

With Reno’s confirmation by the full Senate expected as early as today, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), one of two women on the committee, said: “It is, in fact, history in the making.” Her enthusiasm was shared by her colleague, Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun (D-Ill.), who said to Reno: “This has been a veritable love feast for you. . . . (It) just shows that the best man for the job is often a woman.”

Just before the vote was taken, veteran committee member Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) declared that there is widespread respect for Reno’s record as a prosecutor and “an innovator in the criminal justice system.” And he said: “I think from the time Ms. Reno is sworn in that the American people will know that they do have a friend, that they do have an advocate, that they really do have a people’s counsel.”

As attorney general, the 54-year-old Reno--state attorney in Dade County, Fla., for 15 years--would take command of a 93,000-employee Justice Department that is confronting such immediate problems as the standoff at Waco, Tex.--where the FBI’s hostage rescue team is playing a principal role--and the unresolved ethics findings against FBI Director William S. Sessions.

Throughout the hearings, Reno, who won election five times to her prosecutor’s post in the Miami area, demonstrated an ability to avoid being forced to prematurely take positions on issues that she was to face on the job. Among them were questions over funding for juvenile justice programs and whether drug interdiction should be de-emphasized in favor of treatment and education.

At the same time, she responded to sensitive criminal justice issues--such as legislative attempts to reduce the number of appeals that Death Row defendants can file--in a way that met with praise from committee members on opposite sides of the issue.

In approving Reno minutes after she finished testifying as the hearing’s only witness, the committee unanimously set aside its rule of delaying a vote until seven days after a hearing ends. Similarly, the full Senate is expected to waive its normal three-day waiting period, which is designed to give senators an opportunity to review the committee’s report.

The unusual speed and upbeat tone of the hearings contrasted with the fate of President Clinton’s first nominee, Zoe Baird, who withdrew after her second day of Senate testimony when confronted with a public outcry over her employment of illegal immigrants as household workers.

Clinton then appeared close to naming federal Judge Kimba M. Wood but chose not to do so when the White House learned that she too had a “nanny” problem--even though she had employed an illegal immigrant before it was against the law to do so.

Although Clinton has appointed four other female Cabinet members, Reno would be the first to hold what is considered to be one of the four “top” posts: chiefs of the State, Defense, Treasury and Justice departments.

Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), the committee chairman, said the FBI and committee majority and minority investigators had looked into “some truly bizarre accusations” lodged against Reno but had found “no credible evidence” to support them.

Biden said five opponents of the nomination had been offered the opportunity to submit written testimony but that none had done so.