ACCESSION NUMBER:00000
FILE ID:96041811.txt
DATE:04/18/96
TITLE:18-04-96  CONGRESSIONAL REPORT, THURSDAY, APRIL 18

TEXT:
(Terrorism, Ron Brown, Iran, Whitewater)  (840)

CONGRESS APPROVES ANTI-TERRORISM BILL

The House, by a vote of 293 to 133, has approved and sent to President
Clinton a compromise anti-terrorism bill that aims to give the
government new tools to fight terrorism. The action came April 18, one
day before the first anniversary of the bombing of the Alfred Murrah
federal building in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people.

The Senate approved the compromise measure April 17 by a vote of 91-8.

Clinton is expected to sign the bill April 19 on the anniversary of
the bombing.

Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan), the presumptive Republican
nominee for President, called it the toughest anti-terrorist measure
the Congress has enacted.

But Democrats, many of whom supported the measure on the final vote,
said the bill had been gutted of the toughest provisions, leaving as
the centerpiece a section long sought by Republicans to limit federal
death row appeals.

Cut out of the final bill were provisions to expand the authority of
the Justice Department to tap telephone lines in terrorism cases as
well as provisions to ban bullets used to penetrate bullet-proof
vests.

The compromise measure would facilitate the speedy removal of
suspected foreign terrorists from U.S. soil; keep foreign terrorists
from raising money for their activities in the U.S., and make
membership in a terrorist organization the basis for exclusion from
the U.S.

The bill would also provide victims of international terrorism the
ability to sue foreign governments responsible for terrorist acts in
U.S. courts.

The bill "has some very effective tools that we can use in our efforts
to combat terrorism," Attorney General Janet Reno said.

She cited provisions that would allow deportation of alien terrorists
without disclosing classified evidence against them, prevent fund
raising for terrorism in the United States, and require taggants, or
chemical markers, in plastic explosives so they can be traced.

CONGRESS PAYS TRIBUTE TO RON BROWN AND OTHERS WHO LOST LIVES IN CRASH

The House April 18 approved a resolution identical to one passed April
15 by the Senate that pays tribute to Commerce Secretary Ron Brown and
the 32 other Americans who lost their lives when their plane crashed
near Dubrovnik, Croatia on April 3. The resolutions also extend
condolences to the families who lost loved ones in the accident.

DOLE ATTACKS CLINTON ON IRANIAN ARMS TRANSFERS TO BOSNIA

Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole, (R-Kan), in a Senate speech April
17, attacked as "duplicitous" the Clinton Administration's decision to
turn a blind eye to Iranian arms shipments to Bosnia while publicly
opposing Dole's attempts to lift the international arms embargo
against Bosnia's Muslims.

Unveiling what he evidently hopes will be an issue in his presidential
campaign against Clinton, Dole said that the Senate Select Committee
on Intelligence and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will look
into the matter, possibly holding hearings.

"In my view, the roles of the President and administration officials
in this matter need to be examined -- even if we do not receive
cooperation from the White House and the Intelligence Oversight Board,
which has been the case to date," he said.

"This duplicitous policy has seriously damaged our credibility with
our allies. It has also produced one of the most serious threats to
our forces in Bosnia...the presence of Iranian military forces and
intelligence officials in Bosnia" Dole said.

"Had we lifted the arms embargo and provided weapons, the Bosnians
could have defended themselves....Most likely, we also would not have
20,000 American soldiers in Bosnia at this moment. Finally...the
United States would have done the right thing, for the right reason,
openly and honestly," he said.

SENATE APPROVES COMPROMISE TO KEEP WHITEWATER PANEL ALIVE

The Senate has approved a resolution (S. Res. 246) to extend the life
of the expired Senate Whitewater Committee, which is probing the
failed land deal involving President Clinton and his wife, Hillary
Rodham Clinton, as well as loans made to Clinton's Arkansas
gubernatorial campaigns.

The resolution, which passed by a voice vote April 17, calls for the
committee to continue its hearings until June 14, with a final report
due by June 17.

The resolution came as the result of a bipartisan compromise after
Senator Alfonse D'Amato, (R-NY), chairman of the Senate Whitewater
committee, threatened to move the investigation to the Senate Banking
Committee, of which he is also chairman.

The resolution allows no more than $450,000 to be spent on staff
salaries and expenses for the special committee, which has been
examining financial dealings involving President Clinton, his wife,
and their business associates.

Senate Democrats on six occasions had blocked floor action on a
resolution to extend the life of the Whitewater panel indefinitely and
provide $600,000 for staff salaries and investigative expenses.

"Our concern" is the more the panel extends into a political year,
"the more political it becomes," said Senator Paul Sarbanes, (D-Md),
the banking committee's ranking minority member.
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