Compromise on Brady Gun Bill Blocked by GOP

Senate Republicans blocked passage of the Brady handgun control bill Monday night on the eve of their recess for the holidays even though Senate and House negotiators had agreed on a final version of the measure.

Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) said that the compromise, which sought to reconcile differences between the House and Senate measures, was worse than the version passed by either chamber.

Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) scheduled a session today to try to revive the measure, which would impose a five-day waiting period on handgun purchases to allow time for background checks. But Dole indicated that he would continue to oppose Senate approval of the bill.

Dole complained that the Senate-House conference committee discarded important provisions that were put into the bill after five days of negotiations in the Senate that resulted in its approval Saturday. “The reward we got was zero, zippo,” Dole said.

Dole’s objection, in which he was joined by 18 other senators, scuttled plans to have the compromise approved by a voice vote in the Senate. Dole predicted that opponents could indefinitely delay the legislation by filibuster and could muster the 41 votes needed to prevent the Senate from invoking cloture to end the delay.

Mitchell also has indicated he will summon senators back to Washington after Thanksgiving to complete action on the bill if it is not passed before Congress goes home for the holidays. The House approved the compromise measure, 238 to 187, early today, leaving the Senate the last barrier to its enactment.

In other action early today, the House gave final congressional approval to the extension of jobless benefits to 1 million workers who have exhausted their basic 26-week state payments. The vote was 320 to 105 to send the measure to the White House.

Under the bill’s provisions, long-term unemployed in California and four other states with high jobless rates would be eligible for an extra 13 weeks of benefits. Workers in other states would be entitled to another seven weeks of unemployment compensation. In both cases, the bill would be retroactive to last Oct. 2, when a previous emergency extension expired.

The Brady bill, named for former White House Press Secretary James S. Brady, who was wounded in the 1981 assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan, appeared dead late Friday because of a Republican-led filibuster in the Senate. But it was given new life the next day when opponents agreed to allow a revised version of the legislation to come to a vote and it passed the Senate, 63 to 36.

House proponents of the measure, however, objected to some of the new provisions on grounds that they would undercut existing gun laws.

In a statement Monday night, Brady’s wife, Sarah, blasted what she called Republican “obstructionism” on the measure saying: “This is gridlock at its worst.”

The Senate-House conference got off to a rocky start when Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), who is a board member of the National Rifle Assn., said that he would not accept any changes in the Senate-passed bill.

“You want a bill or don’t you want a bill?” a red-faced Stevens shouted.

But Rep. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), chief author of the House-passed bill, was equally livid.

“We cannot live with just the take-it-or-leave-it Senate position,” Schumer said.

Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) added with unusual sarcasm: “Once again . . . a minority is attempting to dictate to the majority. . . . Forget these guys.”

Schumer protested that one Senate change would exempt “millions of guns, many of them semiautomatics,” from the law. The change would classify as antiques any guns made before 1919. The House version sets the date as 1898.

He also protested another Senate provision that would allow gun dealers to cross state lines, contending it would allow a flood of guns from states with less regulation to states with tighter regulations.

The standoff in the Senate torpedoed President Clinton’s hopes to give a “Thanksgiving present” to the nation.

In another action Monday night, the House gave final congressional approval on a 235-191 vote to a bill providing $18.3 billion for the government to complete its bailout of the savings and loan industry. The money will be used to take over insolvent thrifts and pay off depositors.

The money goes to the Resolution Trust Corp., the agency in charge of the S&L; bailout, and authorizes up to $8 billion for RTC’s successor, the Savings Assn. Insurance Fund. The measure, which narrowly passed the Senate Saturday, now goes to the White House for the President’s signature.

The RTC has been without spending authority since April, 1992. Under provisions of the legislation, the agency would have to go out of business at the end of 1995.

* BULLETS OFF MARKET: Winchester will no longer sell high-powered hollow-point bullets to the public. A12