(CBS/AP) On the eve of the second anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush is urging Congress to once again expand police powers, saying they are a needed weapon in the war on terror.

Mr. Bush was outlining his request Wednesday at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Va., where he was giving local emergency workers as well as officials from the federal law enforcement agency and the Homeland Security department an update on efforts to improve homeland security.

Mr. Bush wants Congress to give law enforcement authorities the same powers to go after terrorists that they now have with many other suspected criminals, White House press secretary Scott McClellan said.

For example, suspected drug traffickers are presumptively denied bail in some cases but those provisions don't apply to suspected terrorists, the administration argues. Similarly, the death penalty applies to crimes such as sexual abuse and drug-related offenses, but not to some terrorist crimes.

Also, provisions for administrative subpoenas that are available in medical fraud cases and more than 300 other instances do not apply to terrorism, McClellan said. Such subpoenas are issued without the approval of a grand jury.

"He will urge Congress to remove disparities in he law that make no sense," McClellan said. "Congress needs to amend the law that allows us to go after doctors involved in wrongdoing so that we can also catch terrorists before it's too late."

Many of the provisions that Mr. Bush is seeking are contained in proposals already introduced in Congress.

His push for greater law enforcement powers comes amid increasing worry that the USA PATRIOT Act, which was passed in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, threatens civil liberties.

That bill, which allowed expanded electronic surveillance, limited judicial oversight and allowed federal agents secret access to people's private records pertaining to library usage and other activities.

More than 100 communities have passed local measures opposing the law. Members of Congress from both parties have voiced concerns about the bill. The American Civil Liberties Union has sued to stop parts of it.

The administration, however, contends that the Patriot Act has been essential to defending the nation against further terrorist attack. Attorney General John Ashcroft recently mounted a multi-city speaking tour to bolster support for the law and future legislation to broaden federal power.

Patriot Act backers point to the fact that two years after Sept. 11, the United States has not been attacked on a single occasion, while several alleged terrorists have been arrested on its soil.

Mr. Bush's remarks come three days after he delivered a progress report on his administration's efforts against terrorism abroad, in which he focused on the war in Iraq and described it as the central battleground of the global war on terror.

Mr. Bush's homeland security speech also comes amid questions about whether the nation is better prepared now than on the day two years ago when terrorists killed 3,016 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania with four hijacked airplanes.

Among the changes Mr. Bush was to tout is the creation of the new Homeland Security Department, which combined elements of scores of other federal agencies to improve law enforcement, intelligence, emergency management agencies, and air and other transportation safety.

And the president was expected to talk about changes at the FBI, which shifted its focus from prosecuting crimes to trying to prevent terrorist attacks. To help highlight that shift — and improved performance at the FBI — Mr. Bush was to tour a new FBI crime lab housed at the Quantico training facility.

The nearly five-month-old lab employs state-of-the-art technology for forensic work ranging from analyzing fingerprints to the latest DNA matching.

It was not clear how Mr. Bush intended to expand the federal death penalty, which already applied to 58 crimes.

According to the Congressional Research Service, these offenses include any situation where death occurs as a result of the willful destruction of aircraft, air piracy, violence at airports, use or handling of weapons of mass destruction, interstate transport of explosives, torture, destroying property, using a firearm at a federal facility, kidnapping, hostage taking, mailing injurious articles, wrecking trains, carjacking, violence on ships or ocean platforms.

Other federal capital crimes include treason, espionage, killing a family member of a U.S. official in an attempt to intimate the official, killing the president or his Cabinet, murdering a foreign official, murdering a U.S. citizen overseas, or "acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries, where death results."