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Congressional Report, October 4: Anti-Terrorism Bill

(Senate, House moving forward on legislation) (320)
HOUSE PANEL APPROVES ANTI-TERROR BILL; SENATE NEARS ACTION
The House Judiciary Committee has approved, and sent on to the full
House, an anti-terrorism bill drafted in response to the suicide
attacks that killed thousands of civilians in New York and Washington
September 11.
The committee passed the measure by a 36-0 vote late October 3, after
several days of bipartisan negotiations aimed at developing a broadly
acceptable draft.
Meanwhile, Senate negotiators reached what they termed an "agreement
in principle" with the Bush administration on their own version of the
anti-terrorism legislation.
The full House is scheduled to vote on the measure early in the week
of October 8, and the Senate could well vote swiftly as well.
The bill passed by the House Judiciary Committee, adapted from
proposals advanced by the administration, expands the ability of law
enforcement and intelligence agencies to wiretap phones, monitor
Internet communications, and exchange information, and provides for
prosecution of anyone who knowingly harbors a terrorist.
It permits law enforcement agencies to detain non-citizens suspected
of terrorist offenses without charges for as long as seven days, and
indefinitely under certain narrow circumstances, staff sources said.
The administration had sought a broader right to detain foreigners
deemed security risks indefinitely without charges, but that was
dropped at the insistence of committee members who expressed civil
liberties concerns.
While language was not available, the Senate version reportedly is
similar to the House bill in most respects. Some remaining
differences, however, likely will require a Senate-House conference
committee to work out a compromise after the individual chambers act.
One key difference is that the many provisions in the House bill would
expire after two years, while the Senate version would put them in
place permanently.
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)