Republican attempts in both chambers to hit the Clinton administration over security lapses at U.S. nuclear weapons labs were frustrated Thursday in both chambers.
The House Rules Committee's decision to block a bipartisan amendment containing reforms proposed by the special committee on Chinese espionage and substitute a partisan GOP proposal went awry.
The partisan sidetracking of the reform measure offered by Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., the special committee's ranking member, and supported by Select Committee Chairman Christopher Cox, R- Calif., contributed to the embarrassing premature adjournment of the House early Thursday afternoon.
In the Senate, a more radical plan for lab security offered by Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., met a similar fate after a Democratic filibuster.
Relenting to the Democratic resistance, Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., yanked Kyl's amendment to the defense authorization bill. Lott postponed any action on the Kyl reform till after the Memorial Day break. Kyl's amendment, which President Clinton threatened to veto, would have reorganized the Energy Department.
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