Senate chairman to circulate homeland security draft bill

Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., plans to circulate a draft of his homeland security legislation this week as House leaders race to finalize their version of the bill in order to bring it to a vote on the House floor next week.

It is too early to tell how similar the House and Senate bills will be because it is not known if the five Republicans on the House Homeland Security Committee will include the dozens of suggestions made by Democratic leaders and a range of House committees last week.

House Democrats believe that Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, the chairman of the select committee, will ignore the recommendations and produce a bill that mirrors the proposal unveiled by President Bush last month.

"They are going to ignore it," said a spokesman for Government Reform Committee ranking member Henry Waxman, D-Calif., referring to homeland security legislation approved by the committee last week. "The only question now is how they are going to explain it."

A spokesman for Armey maintained that the GOP leadership has made no final decision on policy or process.

"Armey is still talking to Democrats about how to proceed," the spokesman said.

A final decision must be made in the next few days because the committee plans to meet Friday to mark up a homeland security bill-though a few House aides today said that date could slip into early next week.

Last week, a dozen House panels approved a number of changes to the Bush administration's plan, such as bucking a White House plan to relax civil service laws for employees of the newly created Homeland Security Department.

Lieberman's legislation is expected to adopt many of the changes suggested by the House Democrats and committees. Senate Democrats hope to move legislation through the Governmental Affairs Committee next week in order to bring it to the Senate floor the following week.