HOUSE VOTES TO BOLSTER A DRUG-TRAFFICKING BILL

WASHINGTON -- After a bitter fight involving some of Washington's most
powerful lobbying firms, Congress is dropping legal protections sought
by international companies that feared they would become targets of
new laws against drug traffickers.

The House passed by voice vote on Tuesday a classified bill
authorizing intelligence programs for the fiscal year 2000 that
contains a provision to prevent American companies from doing business
with international companies or foreigners identified by the United
States as major drug traffickers. Senate approval of the bill is expected.

Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., chairman of the Senate intelligence
committee, had sought to modify the bill's drug-trafficking
provisions. His aides said he was trying to prevent overzealous
officials from seizing the assets of legitimate companies linked to
drug trafficking by scant evidence.

But Shelby's opponents won the argument. The bill, according to the
unclassified version made available to the public, deletes the
protections he sought for these companies and instead sets up an
independent commission to evaluate the new law's effects after a year.

Documents circulated in Congress show that one of the lobbying firms
involved in the debate was Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson &
Hand, which employs two former Senate majority leaders: Bob Dole, the
Kansas Republican, and George Mitchell, the Democrat from Maine.

The firm was hired by Transportacion Maritima Mexicana, a major
shipping company that has fought to clear its name after news accounts
quoted U.S. intelligence reports tying it to the drug trade.

The bill passed by the House also orders the Central Intelligence
Agency to report to Congress next year on its involvement with the
coup that brought Gen. Augusto Pinochet to power in Chile in 1973, and
the agency's knowledge of the extensive human rights abuses committed
under the general, who held power until 1990.

The amount of money the United States spends on intelligence programs
remains classified, though the CIA said it was just under $27 billion
two years ago. This year, independent experts and congressional staff
members say, it has risen to about $29 billion or more.