ASHCROFT URGES FAST ACTION ON ANTI-TERROR BILLS.(MAIN)

Byline: ELAINE S. POVICH Newsday

WASHINGTON -- Attorney General John Ashcroft bluntly urged Congress Tuesday to quicken its pace and swiftly approve new anti-terrorist laws, but negotiations in the Senate hit a snag over how far to go in letting investigators share in secret grand jury information.

``Talk won't prevent terrorism; tools prevent terrorism,'' Ashcroft said after meeting with senators. ``I'm deeply concerned about the rather slow pace at which we seem to be making this come true for America.''

But Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., blamed the White House for backing off a tentative agreement reached over the weekend over the mechanics of how law enforcement agencies would share grand jury information with intelligence agencies and administration officials.

``I've asked Vice President Cheney to talk to the administration officials,'' Leahy said, emerging from a negotiating session with lower-level White House aides.

Leahy said the tentative agreement would have allowed confidential grand jury information to be first given to intelligence agencies, with court approval obtained after the fact. A senior White House aide described the disagreement as a matter of ``lawyer interpretation.'' Both sides predicted the dispute would be resolved, but neither side could say how soon.

Elsewhere in Congress, according to the Times Union Washington bureau:

Amtrak President George Warrington told the Senate subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine on Tuesday that checking passengers and their carry-on baggage with metal detectors and X-ray scanners would not be practical in the nation's railway system.

He said Amtrak plans to buy machines to scan checked baggage but has no plans to use metal detectors on passengers or X-ray machines on their carry-on luggage.

A bipartisan group of senators urged the White House to give federal workers the job of screening passengers and baggage at airports.

Bush and House Republicans oppose giving this assignment to government employees and instead favor federal standards for training and performance for airport screeners who would still work for private security firms.

The airport security package is expected to include increasing the number of air marshals on flights, adding bulletproof cockpit doors and other security equipment and deploying the National Guard at airports.

Parts of the pending airplane security legislation won the endorsement Tuesday of a Transportation Department task force, which recommended that airlines start placing fortified cockpit doors in aircraft within 30 days. The panel also urged that pilots and flight attendants receive additional security training within six months.

The task force also recommended that an airplane's transponder be re-engineered so that it continues to transmit a hijack signal even if a hijacker tried to turn it off. A transponder allows Federal Aviation Administration radar to track aircraft in the skies.

ASHCROFT URGES FAST ACTION ON ANTI-TERROR BILLS.(MAIN)

Byline: ELAINE S. POVICH Newsday

WASHINGTON -- Attorney General John Ashcroft bluntly urged Congress Tuesday to quicken its pace and swiftly approve new anti-terrorist laws, but negotiations in the Senate hit a snag over how far to go in letting investigators share in secret grand jury information.

``Talk won't prevent terrorism; tools prevent terrorism,'' Ashcroft said after meeting with senators. ``I'm deeply concerned about the rather slow pace at which we seem to be making this come true for America.''

But Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., blamed the White House for backing off a tentative agreement reached over the weekend over the mechanics of how law enforcement agencies would share grand jury information with intelligence agencies and administration officials.

``I've asked Vice President Cheney to talk to the administration officials,'' Leahy said, emerging from a negotiating session with lower-level White House aides.

Leahy said the tentative agreement would have allowed confidential grand jury information to be first given to intelligence agencies, with court approval obtained after the fact. A senior White House aide described the disagreement as a matter of ``lawyer interpretation.'' Both sides predicted the dispute would be resolved, but neither side could say how soon.

Elsewhere in Congress, according to the Times Union Washington bureau:

Amtrak President George Warrington told the Senate subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine on Tuesday that checking passengers and their carry-on baggage with metal detectors and X-ray scanners would not be practical in the nation's railway system.

He said Amtrak plans to buy machines to scan checked baggage but has no plans to use metal detectors on passengers or X-ray machines on their carry-on luggage.

A bipartisan group of senators urged the White House to give federal workers the job of screening passengers and baggage at airports.

Bush and House Republicans oppose giving this assignment to government employees and instead favor federal standards for training and performance for airport screeners who would still work for private security firms.

The airport security package is expected to include increasing the number of air marshals on flights, adding bulletproof cockpit doors and other security equipment and deploying the National Guard at airports.

Parts of the pending airplane security legislation won the endorsement Tuesday of a Transportation Department task force, which recommended that airlines start placing fortified cockpit doors in aircraft within 30 days. The panel also urged that pilots and flight attendants receive additional security training within six months.

The task force also recommended that an airplane's transponder be re-engineered so that it continues to transmit a hijack signal even if a hijacker tried to turn it off. A transponder allows Federal Aviation Administration radar to track aircraft in the skies.

ASHCROFT URGES FAST ACTION ON ANTI-TERROR BILLS.(MAIN)

Byline: ELAINE S. POVICH Newsday

WASHINGTON -- Attorney General John Ashcroft bluntly urged Congress Tuesday to quicken its pace and swiftly approve new anti-terrorist laws, but negotiations in the Senate hit a snag over how far to go in letting investigators share in secret grand jury information.

``Talk won't prevent terrorism; tools prevent terrorism,'' Ashcroft said after meeting with senators. ``I'm deeply concerned about the rather slow pace at which we seem to be making this come true for America.''

But Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., blamed the White House for backing off a tentative agreement reached over the weekend over the mechanics of how law enforcement agencies would share grand jury information with intelligence agencies and administration officials.

``I've asked Vice President Cheney to talk to the administration officials,'' Leahy said, emerging from a negotiating session with lower-level White House aides.

Leahy said the tentative agreement would have allowed confidential grand jury information to be first given to intelligence agencies, with court approval obtained after the fact. A senior White House aide described the disagreement as a matter of ``lawyer interpretation.'' Both sides predicted the dispute would be resolved, but neither side could say how soon.

Elsewhere in Congress, according to the Times Union Washington bureau:

Amtrak President George Warrington told the Senate subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine on Tuesday that checking passengers and their carry-on baggage with metal detectors and X-ray scanners would not be practical in the nation's railway system.

He said Amtrak plans to buy machines to scan checked baggage but has no plans to use metal detectors on passengers or X-ray machines on their carry-on luggage.

A bipartisan group of senators urged the White House to give federal workers the job of screening passengers and baggage at airports.

Bush and House Republicans oppose giving this assignment to government employees and instead favor federal standards for training and performance for airport screeners who would still work for private security firms.

The airport security package is expected to include increasing the number of air marshals on flights, adding bulletproof cockpit doors and other security equipment and deploying the National Guard at airports.

Parts of the pending airplane security legislation won the endorsement Tuesday of a Transportation Department task force, which recommended that airlines start placing fortified cockpit doors in aircraft within 30 days. The panel also urged that pilots and flight attendants receive additional security training within six months.

The task force also recommended that an airplane's transponder be re-engineered so that it continues to transmit a hijack signal even if a hijacker tried to turn it off. A transponder allows Federal Aviation Administration radar to track aircraft in the skies.