Senate passes anti-terrorism bill to Bush for signature

WASHINGTON -- The Senate sent President Bush a package of anti-terror measures Thursday that gives police sweeping new powers to search people's homes and business records secretly and to eavesdrop on telephone and computer conversations.

Bush said he will sign the bill "so that we can combat terrorism and prevent future attacks."

The Senate approved the bill 98-1 a day after the House signed on. But lawmakers, worried about possible abuse of the new wiretapping and surveillance powers, decided to place a four-year cap on that part of the legislation.

The legislation, somewhat weakened from the administration's original proposal, expands the FBI's wiretapping and electronic surveillance authority and imposes stronger penalties for harboring or financing terrorists. It also expands the number of crimes considered terrorist acts and increases the punishment for committing them.

Attorney General John Ashcroft said the Justice Department will begin using the new powers immediately.

"Upon the president's signature, I will direct investigators and prosecutors to begin immediately seeking court orders to intercept communications related to an expanded list of crimes under the legislation," he said.

The House and Senate approved Bush's anti-terrorism package in less than two months, skipping much of the normal committee process in their haste. Lawmakers say they still came up with a good bill.

"The gestation period has been a few weeks. But it's a heck of a lot better than to have given birth to a monster, and we didn't do that," said Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.

Russ Feingold, D-Wis., was the only senator to vote against the package. "This bill does not strike the right balance between empowering law enforcement and protecting civil liberties," Feingold said.

Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, the senior Republican on the Judiciary Committee, retorted: "I don't know anybody in this country who's afraid of their law enforcement people at this time."

"They're afraid of terrorism. And frankly, this bill will go a long way to giving the tools to our law enforcement community to be able to do what really needs to be done, to give us the maximum protection that we can get in this society," Hatch said.