SENATE REPUBLICANS CHALLENGE RENO'S BID TO CUT MONEY FOR FIGHTING CRIME

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.

Hatch clashed with Attorney General Janet Reno last week on her
proposal to cut several anti-crime grants from her budget proposal.
Reno said crime was down significantly nationwide, and she wanted to
shift money 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 money in Hatch's "21st Century Justice Act" is set aside
for grant programs that Reno wants eliminated, the chairman told reporters.

The programs in dispute are:

The Local Law Enforcement Block Grant Program, which congressional
Republicans first proposed in their 1994 election blueprint, the
"Contract With America." 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 for at
least 85 percent of their sentences. Many states, Hatch said, have
already changed their laws to accommodate the program.

The 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. Senate
Republican leadership sources said the bill marks a new willingness
among some senior Republicans to take on legislation that approaches
the gun-control issue.

Republicans, many of whom have opposed such legislation in recent
years, feared they would lose such a battle after nationally
publicized firearm tragedies at schools and elsewhere.

Hatch's agenda, however, faces little risk of igniting a gun battle
because it focuses primarily on the prosecutions, Republican sources
said.

It would expand a Richmond, Va., program in which the U.S. attorney
prosecutes as many local gun-related crimes in federal court as
possible and seeks federal mandatory minimum sentences. Hatch said
homicides in Richmond dropped 50 percent after that program took effect.

The legislation also includes a news media campaign to spread the
message that "an illegal gun will get you five years in federal prison."

Hatch said he plans a hearing on Monday on firearms prosecutions.

The bill also would:

Extend federal laws against the murder of state and local law
enforcement officers to the murder by federal detainees of state
corrections officers.

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.

Provide state and local governments the resources and authority to
address emerging high-tech and international crime.

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