SENATE REJECTS CAP ON LAWYER FEES IN TOBACCO BILL

WASHINGTON - The Senate has rejected a move to cap the fees of trial lawyers
in multibillion-dollar lawsuits against the tobacco industry.

Senators also voted, 58-39, yesterday to defeat the first amendment to the
national tobacco bill offered by Republicans. The bill, sponsored by Sen.
John McCain, R-Ariz., would impose the largest price increase ever on
cigarettes and place broad restrictions on the tobacco industry.

At the same time, President Clinton's plan to bless the McCain bill was
being complicated by a Republican leadership amendment aimed at helping
tobacco farmers. A senior White House official warned yesterday that the
provision would upset a carefully developed agreement over how to spend the
proceeds from the legislation and create a financial windfall for cigarette
makers.

Olympic gold medalist figure skater Tara Lipinski and hundreds of children
were to appear at a White House ceremony this morning at which Clinton was
to praise the McCain bill and urge the Senate to pass it. But as
administration officials described it yesterday, whether Clinton can issue a
flat pledge to sign the bill has been thrown into question by the
controversy over how best to help tobacco farmers.

Last night, for instance, the Senate debated a Democratic amendment to
increase the price of cigarettes by $1.50 a pack over three years - an
increase that would be bigger and imposed more quickly than that called for
in the McCain bill.

Sens. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., also plan to introduce
an amendment to strip the bill of any liability protections for the
industry. The White House, which had previously taken a neutral position on
that issue, began to work against that amendment yesterday, upsetting some
Democrats and public-health advocates.

Last week, McCain and the administration agreed on a plan that would give $6
billion worth of aid to farmers over the next three years. But Sen. Richard
Lugar, R-Ind., and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., imperiled
that agreement with a competing plan that, in the near term, would give
farmers nearly $18 billion over three years.

Checked-by: "Rolf Ernst"