Homeland Bill Nears Passage

[thedrifter]

WASHINGTON, Nov. 19, 2002

(CBS/AP)

"This is an important piece of legislation. It is landmark in its scope."
President Bush

(CBS) After months of delay, President
Bush's homeland security bill appeared headed for victory in Congress after the Senate rejected an effort by Democrats to strip the measure of what they called GOP gifts to special interests.

The legislation, which will create a massive new Cabinet agency to safeguard Americans against terrorists, was expected to pass the Senate Tuesday evening.

The vote would be a major legislative win for Mr. Bush and would end five months of contentious debate on how to carry out the most monumental reorganization of the federal government in over half a century.

Earlier Tuesday, the Senate defeated, 57-42, a Democratic amendment to remove several controversial provisions from the bill, clearing the way for a final vote.

Mr. Bush lauded the bill's presumed passage in a phone call with Republican senators. "This is an important piece of legislation. It is landmark in its scope," he said from Air Force One while en route to the NATO summit in Prague.

Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., told the president, "When you wake up in the morning you will have the authority you need to protect the security of the American people here at home."

House leadership aides said the Senate bill could go directly to the president for his signature, since the House has already ended its work for the year. They said minor changes in the Senate bill could be dealt with later.

Mr. Bush proposed the new department last June, saying the agency that will combine 170,000 federal workers from 22 existing agencies was needed to provide a united front against the terrorist threat to the nation. It would be the biggest federal government reorganization since Harry Truman created the Defense Department in 1947.

The House approved the legislation by a wide margin in July, but Senate debate stalled for months, first over the labor rights of employees in the new agency and now, over special interest provisions.

"The terrorists are not going to wait for a process that goes on days, weeks or months," Lott said before the vote on the Democratic amendment. "...We need to get this done and we need to do it now."

Most Democrats, while supporting the homeland security bill, balked at what they said were last-minute inclusions of favors to corporate interests unrelated to the nation's security.

Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., sponsor of the Democratic amendment, said the last-minute additions, carried out without Democratic involvement, were an "atrocious demonstration of demeaning the legislative process."

The most controversial provision would protect pharmaceutical companies from lawsuits over the side effects of vaccines they create. The protections would be retroactive to lawsuits already in court concerning ingredients used in vaccines. Democrats said that among the lawsuits that could be thrown out were those involving claims that mercury-based preservatives used in vaccines cause autism in children.

The bill also includes liability protections for makers of airport screening equipment and airport security firms and weakens an amendment offered by the late Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., that would have barred companies that set up offshore tax havens from getting federal homeland security contracts.

Three Democrats voted with the president to defeat the Democratic amendment, including Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, who faces a tough run-off election next month in her bid for a second term, Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Zell Miller of Georgia.

John McCain of Arizona was the only Republican to side with the Democrats. The two independents split their vote, with Vermont's James Jeffords voting with the Democrats and Minnesota's interim senator Dean Barkley voting with the Republicans.

Maine's two moderate Republican senators, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, and Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., said they voted against the amendment only after receiving assurances from Lott that he would work next year to remove three of the provisions, including one that gives protections to pharmaceutical companies that have already been sued over certain ingredients used in vaccines. Lott also contacted House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., traveling in Turkey, to seek his promise that the provisions would be eliminated.

Nelson said he had received a similar commitment from Lott.

Had the Democratic amendment prevailed, House leaders would have had to decide whether to accept that version or initiate new negotiations.

The Senate was also trying Tuesday to finish legislation to shield the insurance industry from the catastrophic costs of future terrorist onslaughts. The bill before the Senate would have the government cover up to $90 annually to cover claims from future attacks.


? MMII, CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Sempers,

Roger