The Senate passed a $22.3 billion bill Friday designed to win back the streets from violent criminals who have left many Americans fearful of leaving their homes.
The 95-4 vote will send the crime-busting bill to a conference committee next year, where it must be reconciled with scaled-down legislation passed by the House. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, proclaimed the bill "the finest anti-crime package in history, certainly the most expensive."Hatch led opposition to the bill earlier this month but won so many Republican-friendly amendments that he eventually became its main co-sponsor along with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Joseph Biden, D-Del.
After finishing the bill, the Senate headed into a bruising debate over separate legislation for a five-day waiting period for handgun customers.
The Senate anti-crime measure expands potential use of the death penalty, increases prison time for dozens of offenses, authorizes thousands of new police officers, finances new prisons and compensates local governments for an expected surge in new cases. Nineteen specified assault weapons would be banned, although no current guns would be taken away.
Hatch said, "Crime is the most important issue in the minds of the American people" - which he said led Democrats and Republicans to finally compromise on the bill, which he said had been sparred over for eight years.
"There are so many good provisions in here that it's hard not to be euphoric," he said.
Hatch had opposed for years a ban on assault weapons - but he said he now supports the whole package because so many other good provisions were included.
"It is a very comprehensive bill," he said. "I hope the House (which passed a much more lenient bill) will support most of it."
The battle over handgun control will be fought over two issues favored by gun-control opponents. The opponents want the bill to supersede more restrictive waiting periods imposed by some states and cities; and they demand a time limit on the waiting period - whether or not a planned system of computerized, instant checks is operating.
"We feel very good about the situation," said the chief sponsor of the waiting period, Sen. Howard Metzenbaum, D-Ohio.
The overall anti-crime bill would authorize 100,000 new local police officers, additional federal agents and a beefed up prosecution force.
In addition, the measure would authorize $100 million a year, from fiscal 1994 through 1998, to help state and local governments increase their crime-fighting resources.
The death penalty would be expanded to cover some 50 federal offenses, including murder of a law enforcement officer, drive-by killings and carjackings that result in death.
The increases in penalties would mean mandatory life sentences for those convicted of a third violent crime or a third major drug felony. The harsh sentence could only be triggered by a federal conviction in the third case, although previous state and local convictions would count toward the total.