Senate approves Homeland Security bill

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Senate approves Homeland Security bill

By Chad Selweski, Macomb Daily Staff Writer

November 20, 2002

Fourteen months after the Sept. 11 attacks that staggered the nation, the Senate in a 90-9 vote granted final approval Tuesday to legislation that presents a united front against terrorism by creating a massive Department of Homeland Security.

In a final flurry of legislative wrangling, the Senate rejected, by 51-47 vote, a Democratic amendment designed to remove seven provisions from the bill that were viewed as pro-business favors initiated by Republicans.

Sen. Debbie Stabenow fought for the unsuccessful amendment, but said it was time to approve a flawed bill and "fight another day."

"I believe it's time to move forward on homeland security, but I really struggled with this," the Lansing Democrat said. "I wanted to see funding for our local providers, our police and fire. And there were things thrown into this bill at the last minute that have nothing to do with homeland security."

Sen. Carl Levin cast one of the 9 dissenting votes.

"The legislation the Senate will pass tonight has numerous unrelated and inappropriate special interest provisions, omits numerous related and appropriate homeland security provisions, and fails to address probably the most central question to our security -- the coordination and sharing of information between the CIA and the FBI," Levin said in his remarks on the floor of the Senate before the vote.

The Cabinet-level agency to be created will be the most monumental reorganization of the federal government since the formation of the Defense Department in 1947. The $40 billion Department of Homeland Security will consolidate 22 agencies and be manned by 170,000 employees.

A year ago, President Bush had initially balked at combining agencies such as Customs, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Secret Service and the Coast Guard into a single homeland security department.

Nonetheless, Tuesday's vote by the lame-duck Senate was a triumph for Bush, who had expressed frustration for several months at Congress' inaction on the issue. Speaking to Republican senators from Air Force One on Tuesday as he flew to NATO meetings in Europe, Bush called the new department "landmark in its scope" and thanked the lawmakers for securing final passage.

The president and key advisers actively lobbied wavering senators to defeat the Democratic amendment.

Three Democrats opposed the amendment while one Republican, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, supported it. Republicans said the amendment was a stalling tactic that would prevent the House and Senate from agreeing on a final bill before the end of the year.

"The terrorists are not going to wait for a process that goes on days, weeks or months," said Senate GOP Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi. "...We need to get this done and we need to do it now."

The Democratic amendment sparked one final flurry of debate after the Senate spent five months battling over labor provisions that will strip union workers in the new department of various workplace protections.

The bill will give Bush authority to hire, fire and deploy workers regardless of workplace rules.

Other aspects of the bill will: extend by one year the Dec. 31 deadline for airports to install explosive detection systems and to screen all baggage; cap the amount of damages that two airport-screening companies on duty Sept. 11 could face from lawsuits; provide a test program to allow pilots to carry guns in airline cockpits; and weaken an amendment offered by the late Sen. Paul Wellstone to bar companies that establish offshore tax havens from receiving federal homeland security contracts.

The most controversial of the seven provisions targeted for removal by Democrats was a measure that would have made manufactures of vaccines immune from lawsuits.

What makes the provision unusual is that it would protect drug makers, particularly Eli Lilly, from pending lawsuits. The parents of about 150 children have have filed suit, claiming that their child's autism was caused by thimerosal, a mercury preservative once included in child vaccines designed to prevent measles, mumps and rubella.

By steering those lawsuits into a federal program that limits compensation in vaccine lawsuits, the alleged victims would be limited to $250,000 in damages collected.

Critics have called the amendment an "Eli Lilly bailout" and have said it could save the pharmaceutical industry millions of dollars, if not billions.

Adding to the uproar was the fact that the drug industry gave $14 million in contributions to congressional candidates in the Nov. 5 election, mostly to Republicans. Eli Lilly led the way with $1.6 million.

In addition, Sidney Taurel, Lilly's president and chief executive, is a member of the White House Advisory Council on Homeland Security, and President Bush's budget director, Mitch Daniels, was formerly president of the company's North American operations.

Daniels said he played no role in forwarding the amendment, and Eli Lilly officials say they don't know how the amendment was inserted into the homeland security bill.

Lott and House Speaker Dennis Hastert have assured moderate Republicans that the provision will be eliminated by the new Congress that takes office in January. A skeptical Stabenow said she will introduce legislation to wipe it off the books.

"This is absolutely outrageous," she said. "This is a political, special-interest provision that ... raises some serious ethical questions. This eliminates families' ability to have their day in court."

AP contributed to this report.

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