Washington briefs

By Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published September 9, 2000

Pentagon: A missile defense is feasible

WASHINGTON -- In his first public comments since President Clinton's decision last week to put off construction of a national missile defense, the Pentagon's missile defense chief told a House panel on Friday there is "no technical reason" that an effective defense against missiles could not be built.

Air Force Lt. Gen. Ronald Kadish, director of the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, said his office provided technical information about the project's status and prospects as part of the Pentagon's input to Clinton's decision, but it made no recommendation on whether to proceed or to defer deployment.

Defense Secretary William Cohen recommended that Clinton give the go-ahead to begin deployment of a national missile defense in hopes that it could be ready for use by 2007 or perhaps earlier.

Clinton, however, announced Sept. 1 that he would leave a deployment decision to his successor because he was not convinced the technology is at hand to build a reliable anti-missile shield.

House Banking chairman eyes banks' stock buys

WASHINGTON -- The House Banking Committee chairman is accusing the Clinton administration of "secretly" giving some banks approval to buy stocks of commercial companies.

Rep. Jim Leach, R-Iowa, says Treasury Department officials are trying to give banks powers they did not get under major legislation enacted last November allowing them to expand into other financial businesses. He made his objections public Friday in a letter to Comptroller of the Currency John D. Hawke Jr., whose Treasury division oversees nationally chartered banks.

Hawke later said that it was appropriate for his agency to give permission and that it did not require a formal, written policy because it only affected three banks.

Administration defers cancer drug payment cuts

WASHINGTON -- Under criticism from doctors and patients, the Clinton administration backed away Friday from a plan to cut Medicare payments for cancer drugs given to hundreds of thousands of patients each year. Administration officials said the cuts, which were to have taken effect on Oct. 1, had been deferred indefinitely. Officials said they needed to study the whole process by which Medicare pays for cancer chemotherapy, including not only drugs, but also the services of doctors and nurses.

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