Senate Blocks a Democratic Attempt to Authorize More Government Wiretapping

The Senate blocked a Democratic attempt to expand the government’s wiretapping authority Friday as part of a sweeping anti-terrorism measure inspired by the Oklahoma City bombing.

The move came in a 52-28 vote as the Senate began crafting legislation to give the government new tools to prevent another such attack and to investigate and prosecute the offenders should another attack occur.

The Senate measure by Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) and Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) encompasses many of the proposals in the $1.5-billion anti-terrorism package President Clinton submitted to Congress a week after the April 19 bombing.

However, it does not give law enforcement as much authority for electronic surveillance as the Clinton plan.

The Senate bill would authorize the hiring of 1,000 new federal law enforcement personnel, require the placement of tiny traceable materials in explosive chemicals, make terrorism a federal crime and give the FBI access to credit reports and telephone records in terrorism cases.

In addition, Republicans want to add a controversial provision that would limit appeals by Death Row prisoners.

Hatch called it “the most comprehensive anti-terrorism bill ever considered in the Senate.”

“What is shocking to so many of us is the apparent fact that those responsible for the Oklahoma atrocity are U.S. citizens. To think that Americans could do this to one another!” Hatch said on the Senate floor.

“It falls on all of us . . . to condemn this sort of political extremism and to take responsible steps to limit the prospect for its recurrence. . . . This legislation adds important tools to the government’s fight against terrorism, and does so in a temperate manner that is protective of civil liberties.”

Dole said he would delay consideration of the overall bill until after the weeklong Memorial Day recess. The majority leader said earlier this week that he had promised Clinton he would try to get the measure out of Congress before the recess. But on Friday he noted that the House had failed to act.

“Even if we did complete action today, we could not get the bill to the President until after Memorial Day,” he said.

In its first vote related to the measure, the Senate rejected an amendment proposed by Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) to extend the government’s emergency wiretapping authority to cases of suspected domestic or international terrorism.

Lieberman’s amendment would have brought the Senate bill closer to the Clinton plan.