Ashcroft: Congress Moving Too Slowly

Attorney General Ashcroft said he's "deeply disturbed" that a bill to give federal law enforcement authorities more power to go after terrorists isn't getting through Congress fast enough, reports CBS News Correspondent Bob Fuss.

Democratic and Republican Senate negotiators failed Tuesday to reach a compromise on anti-terrorism legislation and held another round of talks.

"You can't fight terrorism with words," Ashcroft complained following a meeting with Senate Republicans. "You need tools."

But the Republican leader of the House voiced support for a bipartisan bill that would scale back President Bush's anti-terrorism package yet still expand the power of law enforcement officers on a number of fronts.

"I'm quite impressed," said House Majority Leader Richard Armey of Texas, adding the full chamber may consider the measure as early as the end of this week.

Things didn't go so smoothly in the Senate.

"Frankly, it's time to get off our duffs and do what is right," said Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee and a key player in the negotiations.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, blamed the White House, charging it had backed off a tentative agreement on how law enforcement would share grand jury and wiretap information with intelligence agencies and members of the executive branch.

Another sticking point was Democratic desires to include a provision in the Senate bill to combat money-laundering by terrorists. Republicans contend the provision could hold up final passage of the bill for weeks.

At the White House, spokesman Scott McClellan said, "We're continuing to work closely with Congress .... These discussions are positive."

Mr. Bush and Ashcroft offered their anti-terrorism package more than two weeks ago, following the Sept. 11 attack on the United States that left about 5,700 people dead or missing.

On Monday, the top Republican and Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee struck a tentative deal on a scaled-back version of the administration package.

Chairman James Sensenbrenner, a Wisconsin Republican, and Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, the panel's ranking Democrat, agreed to give law enforcement a nuber of expanded powers, including ones to wiretap phones, track Internet communications and prosecute anyone who knowingly harbors a suspected terrorist.

But Sensenbrenner and Conyers also agreed to eliminate a half dozen of Mr. Bush's more controversial provisions opposed by civil libertarians.

These included provisions that would have permitted indefinite detention without trial of foreigners suspected of terrorist activities; executing search warrants without notifying the suspects; using foreign wiretaps and allowing schools to turn over confidential student records to law enforcement.

The Sensenbrenner-Conyers bill was to be considered Wednesday by the Judiciary Committee.

In an effort to placate those who fear many of the proposed new laws could be abused in the future, most of the expanded wiretap provisions in the House bill would expire, or sunset, in December 2003.

"Most people are quite comforted by the two years' sunset. These are difficult times," Armey said. "We expect to have most of the terrorist threat resolved in the two-year period."

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