Saying they fear the federal government more than they fear terrorists, House members Wednesday scrapped key parts of a new anti-terrorism law President Clinton wanted to avert another Oklahoma City bombing.
Both liberal and conservative lawmakers said they were stunned by the depth of government suspicion expressed in the 246-171 vote, which took the heart out of the anti-terrorist bill and turned it into a simple anti-crime bill."I had one distinguished member tell me he trusted Hamas more than my own government," said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde, R-Ill. "What's happened? Why is my government such a terrible thing?"
Rep. Patricia Schroeder, D-Colo., noted the irony of the House killing anti-terrorism legislation on the day President Clinton was meeting foreign leaders in Egypt to discuss an international crackdown on terrorists.
"I don't think the president is going to be too happy about this," she said. "It's been a very strange day."
Rep. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., said the anti-terrorist bill would have given vast new powers to federal authorities to wiretap and collect sensitive information on citizens without proper warrants, and to prosecute anyone supporting terrorist organizations on the new grounds they "should have known" what they were doing.
"It is this legislation in the name of anti-terrorism that the people feel is a threat to freedom," Coburn said.
Coburn cited polls showing a majority of Americans fear the federal government is already too large and powerful, "and we should not further that fear."
Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga., a former U.S. attorney who led the effort to kill the anti-terrorism provisions, said there are already sufficient laws on the books to deal with terrorism. "We do not need to grant our government vast new powers," he said.
The support for Barr came after an unlikely alliance of the American Civil Liberties Union and gun rights groups launched a campaign to kill the legislation on the grounds it would threaten civil liberties and undermine the Constitution.
Rep. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., protested that the federal government now has no powers to stop terrorist organizations like Hamas and Islamic Jihad from raising money here for their terrorist operations in the Middle East.
"You can't say we've passed an anti-terrorism bill and put nothing in it," he said. "This is a total sham."
The House scheduled final passage of the legislation for Thursday, after which it will go to a House-Senate conference committee.
Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said what's left of the legislation faces a "sad and shaky future."
"We have just eviscerated the heart and soul of the anti-terrorist bill," he said.