Washington in brief

Vaccinemakers to lose law's shield

WASHINGTON -- Congress will eliminate three special-interest provisions that caused a furor after they were anonymously inserted into the Homeland Security law last year, under an agreement announced on Friday by Republican leaders of the House and Senate.

The provisions, which included a waiver of liability for vaccinemakers, astounded Democrats and many Republicans last year when they were added to the huge law with no notice and no debate. A group of centrist senators from both parties felt obliged to go along in order to create the Department of Homeland Security, but extracted a promise from Republican leaders to revisit the provisions in the new Congress.

That promise was kept Friday, said Bill Frist, the new Senate majority leader. When the two houses take up a spending bill this month to keep the government operating, the bill will include a section to revise or eliminate the Homeland Security special-interest provisions, he said. Spokesmen for Dennis Hastert, the speaker of the House, and Tom DeLay, the majority leader, said the House would also approve the measure.

New wetlands guidelines proposed

As many as 20-million acres of wetlands may lose federal protection from industrial pollution or unlawful development as a result of new guidelines announced Friday by the Bush administration.

Officials said the step was necessary to comply with a Supreme Court ruling, but environmentalists said it was part of an industry-backed effort to gut key protections under the 30-year-old Clean Water Act.

Regional offices of the Environmental Protection Agency and Army Corps of Engineers were formally instructed Friday to withhold clean water protection from isolated, nonnavigable ponds and wetlands contained in a single state and to seek guidance from headquarters in determining whether to protect other small intrastate streams and waterways.

Doubling of gasoline tax sought

The Republican chairman of the House Transportation Committee wants to almost double the federal gasoline tax, arguing it's needed to pay for highways and mass transit. Rep. Don Young of Alaska has asked fellow lawmakers and construction industry and labor officials to back an increase in the tax from 18.4 cents per gallon to more than 33 cents by 2009.

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