BILL WOULD PRESERVE ANTI-CRIME GRANTS

WASHINGTON - Millions of dollars in crime-fighting grants to local law
enforcement would be preserved and tougher penalties for drug traffickers
imposed under a $17.5 billion bill unveiled yesterday, Senate Republicans
said.

"It is based on what we know reduces crime," said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah,
chairman of the Judiciary Committee.

Attorney General Janet Reno has proposed cutting several anti-crime grants,
saying crime is down nationwide, and the money should be shifted to other
priorities. But Hatch said yesterday that crime in the United States is
still "significantly high by historical standards," and violent crime rates
here remain the highest of any industrialized nation.

Much of the funding in Hatch's "21st Century Justice Act" is set aside for
grant programs Reno wants cut. The programs in dispute are:

- -- The Local Law Enforcement Block Grant Program. Since 1996, the program
has provided more than $1 billion a year to state and local governments for
equipment and technology.

- -- Truth-in-sentencing grants, which would give states some $700 million a
year to build prisons to house violent and repeat criminals.

- -- Juvenile Accountability Incentive Block Grant, which would give states
$450 million a year to build detention centers, perform drug testing and
improve record-keeping for young offenders.

The bill also would:

- -- Add criminal penalties for recruiting minors for "a criminal street
gang" and toughen penalties for witness intimidation.

- -- Add penalties for teaching bomb-making on the Internet.

- -- Raise penalties for powder cocaine and methamphetamine offenses, and
make criminals liable for the cost of cleanup of their methamphetamine
labs.