Clinton Seeks Passage of Bill on Terrorism

President Clinton on Saturday called on Congress to pass an anti-terrorist bill that has languished for a year despite a promise of quick action after the Oklahoma City bombing.

A majority of Republican lawmakers is hoping to craft a compromise on the bill and send it to the president by Friday, the first anniversary of the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City, in which 168 people were killed.

In his weekly radio address, Clinton accused Republican lawmakers of “foot-dragging” and bowing to special interests such as the National Rifle Assn. in blocking passage of an anti-terrorist bill that he considers acceptable.

According to Republican congressional sources, a compromise bill being discussed would allow the government to ban fund-raising in this country by representatives of terrorist organizations and speed the removal of foreign nationals with links to terrorist organizations.

Clinton supports both of those provisions, but said Saturday the bill should also give law enforcement officials new surveillance and investigative tools for targeting terrorists and require the chemical tagging of bomb-making material to make tracing easier.

Rep. Phil English of Pennsylvania, in the Republican response to Clinton’s address, blamed the president for what he called excessive taxes. “The average family tax burden as a percentage of income is the highest it has ever been in our nation’s peacetime history,” he said.