Washington in brief

Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 29, 2001

Divided House passes budget plan

A deeply divided House on Wednesday approved a $1.94-trillion budget for the coming year that ratifies President Bush's plans to slash taxes and curb spending, sending the blueprint to the Senate where it faces far tougher sledding.

House passage of the budget resolution, which came on a virtual party-line vote of 222-205, is the opening move in a long and contentious process to shape the fiscal policy of Bush's first year in office.

The plan, for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, includes:

The $1.6-trillion tax cut over 10 years.

An overall 4 percent increase in annual spending, compared with an 8 percent increase agreed to by then-President Bill Clinton and Congress for the current fiscal year.

A $310.5-billion budget for the Defense Department, an increase of 4.8 percent over its current spending.

Using $2.3-trillion of the expected $5.6-trillion surplus over the next 10 years to reduce the national debt.

Also

CLIMATE TREATY: The White House said Wednesday that President Bush would not implement the climate treaty negotiated in Kyoto, Japan, but would seek an alternative that would "include the world" in the effort to reduce pollution.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters that Bush wants to work with U.S. allies on a plan that would require developing nations to meet certain standards.

Democratic leaders in Congress and environmental groups promised to fight Bush on the Kyoto climate treaty and other recent policy reversals they called setbacks to the environment.

PANEL PASSES FETUS BILL: The GOP-controlled House Judiciary Committee approved 15-9 along party lines a measure that would make it a crime to hurt or kill a fetus during a violent crime against the mother, sending the measure to the full House for a second year.

The bill's prospects are uncertain in the Senate.

Opponents of the measure argued that the bill was a backdoor attack on abortion rights. But Republicans said the bill's aim was to punish violent criminals who harm pregnant women, and they said two dozen states already have laws to punish violence against fetuses.

SECRET EVIDENCE BILL: Lawmakers on Wednesday reintroduced legislation that was inspired by the case of University of South Florida teacher Mazen Al-Najjar, who was jailed three years on secret evidence.

The bill, sponsored by Democratic Whip David Bonior of Michigan and Reps. Bob Barr. R-Ga., and Tom Davis, R-Va., restricts the use of secret evidence to detain or deport immigrants. A similar bill last session failed to come up for a vote.

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