Police powers, economic stimulus bills pass House

WASHINGTON -- While the House strongly approved legislation Wednesday to give police new search powers, an economic stimulus bill providing $100 billion in assistance passed by only two votes.

"It officially shatters the myth of bipartisanship," said Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y.

The close 216-214 vote, largely along party lines, came after hours of noisy debate reflecting the deep political divide on economic policy, a departure from the unity on some other matters on Capitol Hill since the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Seven Republicans voted against the bill; three Democrats voted for it.

"Part of the war we fight is to make sure our economy continues to grow," Bush said during an appearance at a Maryland printing plant shortly before the House vote.

Republicans have said the legislation was the ideal way to encourage renewed business investment, stop job layoffs and boost consumer confidence in time for the holiday shopping season.

Bush praised four main elements in the House bill, which costs $99.5 billion in 2002 and $159 billion over 10 years. They include a new round of tax rebates for people who didn't get a check earlier this year; repeal of the corporate alternative minimum tax; enhanced expensing write-offs for business capital assets; and acceleration of the cut in the 27 percent individual income tax rate so it falls to 25 percent in 2002, four years earlier than under current law.

Other key items in the bill would effectively cut long-term capital gains tax rates from 20 percent to 18 percent for most taxpayers, give major corporations refunds of alternative minimum taxes they paid up to 15 years ago and allow companies to deduct current operating losses from taxes they paid up to five years earlier.

Even though there is still considerable bipartisan support for some of the tax items, Democrats said the measure's $12 billion in grants to states was far too little to tackle the growing unemployment problem.

They proposed an alternative that would have added 26 weeks of unemployment benefits and provided a 75 percent federal match for COBRA health insurance available to laid-off workers, but it was defeated on a 261-166 vote.

Power to police

A bill smoothing police abilities to secretly search homes, tap phones and track people's use of the Internet sailed through the House on a 357-66 despite critics' concerns about compromising civil liberties.

The Senate plans to move the measure on for President Bush's signature before the end of the week.

In order to get a deal with the Senate, House leaders dumped the House Judiciary Committee's GOP-Democratic compromise with more civil liberties and privacy provisions for a modified Senate version negotiated with the Justice Department and the White House.

"This legislation is not perfect, and the process is not one that all will embrace," House Judiciary Chairman Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., said Tuesday. "However, these are difficult times. ... This legislation is desperately needed."

The legislation expands the federal government's power to inspect educational records, wiretap telephones, track e-mails, seize voice mails and detain immigrants suspected of being terrorists. Critics say it goes too far.