Washington in brief

Knee deep: The House on Sept. 25 backed off its demand that American troops in Bosnia be home by next summer, voting to approve a $247.5 billion defense bill without its original amendment cutting off funds for operations in Bosnia if President Clinton did not complete the troop withdrawal as promised by next June 30. Lawmakers approved the compromise defense-spending bill 356-65 after House and Senate negotiators ironed out differences between the two chambers. Under the compromise, all the president must do to extend the Bosnia deployment into July and beyond is to formally state a reason to Congress by May 15, 1998. The measure also gives Mr. Clinton the power to kill the B-2 project. Payback time: Also on Sept. 25, the House ignored a presidential veto threat and approved an amendment to a $31.7 billion spending bill that would reimburse the legal costs of any citizen wrongfully prosecuted. White House officials issued a statement saying the measure "would have a chilling effect on prosecutorial discretion." The amendment by Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) expands on a provision giving financial relief to members of Congress and their staff when they prevail in an improper prosecution. "It ought to protect anybody who is abused by a suit that is not substantially justified," Rep. Hyde declared. In a separate vote, the House approved a boost in funding for the Legal Services Corporation, an agency conservatives have fought since the Reagan era because of its pursuit of liberal activist causes through the courts. The LSC was designed with the ostensible purpose of assisting the poor with legal expenses. Help is on its way: With only two votes in opposition, the Senate passed a measure streamlining the process for approving drugs and medical devices, and making it easier for seriously ill people to obtain experimental drugs. Maura Kealey of the Ralph Nader-founded Public Citizen called the Senate action the "worst thing to happen to public safety in a long time." The House began work on its version of the bill.

The power of the ballot

Despite an election boycott by pro-democracy forces, Socialists in Serbia still fell short of a majority needed to control the national legislature, forcing the party of powerful Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to enter into a power-sharing arrangement with the nationalistic Radical Party. Socialists have never had to share power in the 10 years since Mr. Milosevic gained control of the party. Four years after being routed by leftists, Poland's reconstituted Solidarity movement turned the tables, leading an alliance that won a plurality of the vote in parliamentary elections. Solidarity, the conservative trade union group that helped topple communism in Poland in 1989, is expected to work with the centrist Freedom Union and one or two small parties to form a coalition government.

IRS: Increase Respect Soon?

Washington's mammoth tax-collecting agency started the week with a handful of defenders. On the record, Sen. Richard Bryan (D-Nev.) declared the Internal Revenue Service "an easy target for criticism and a convenient whipping boy" for Republicans. Off the record, White House officials questioned the motives of GOP senators leading a probe into abuses by the IRS, saying Republicans merely wanted a platform to promote tax simplification. The whispering campaign ended after tearful taxpayer testimony and a parade of whistleblowing IRS agents testifying behind beige cloth screens through electronic voice scramblers. Even IRS chief Michael Dolan bailed out: "No one should have to endure what these citizens describe as their experience at the hands of the tax system." Senators heard testimony that the agency, though barred by a 1988 law from considering individual collection rates in evaluating agents' performance, routinely ranks the efficiency of IRS offices and regions as a whole according to collections. One anonymous IRS inspector said that "statistics drive the organization.... The tail wags the dog." Other witnesses spoke of vindictive agents ("retaliation in our office is almost on a daily basis") and corrupt managers ("[agents told] not to conduct audits of particular taxpayers who happen to be personal friends"). One agent, a 15-year veteran, testified without identity protection. Houston agent Jennifer Long told senators she witnessed "IRS management manipulate income tax return figures just to increase their office or division collection statistics." She said complaints about such abuses "were routinely ignored." Ms. Long also told of having to audit people so poor they couldn't afford air conditioning for their sweltering Houston homes. The anonymous agents corroborated Ms. Long's account. Mr. Dolan, the IRS's acting commissioner, said the agency will immediately end the practice of ranking district offices by collections. In 45 days, he said, he will summon hundreds of top IRS district executives to Washington to discuss the finance committee's findings: "There are a number of actions we have to take immediately to try to preclude the kind of ... incidents that you saw in this committee earlier this week."

The soft-money routine

Even as President Clinton was facing the first uncomfortable questions about Attorney General Janet Reno's decision to take the first step toward appointing an independent counsel to investigate his own fundraising, so-called campaign finance reform took several giant leaps forward. Leaders of big labor and big business voiced support for a proposal to outlaw an entire class of political contributions. Senate leader Trent Lott acceded to pressure and agreed to hold a vote this year on legislation to restrict political contributions, as did House majority leader Dick Armey-though both refused to set a specific timetable. That came after Senate Democrats accepted a narrower campaign-finance bill that focuses on banning all "soft-money" donations to political parties. Meanwhile, anticipating a detailed probe of his White House political fundraising, President Clinton on Sept. 22 "retreated to a more cautious defense" of his actions, The Washington Post reported. Twice in a meeting with reporters in New York Mr. Clinton used the phrase "letter of the law" to describe fundraising he had once deemed "appropriate" and was "proud" to have done. The president seemed rattled by the Post's possession of four Democratic National Committee memorandums to the White House, listing 36 big-dollar contributors. On one of the memos is the handwritten notation "B.C. called." Another memo had a cover sheet marked "President has seen." Asked about the evidence, Mr. Clinton said, "I don't know what you're talking about on the memos, because I haven't seen them, so I can't comment on that."

School daze

Hoping to deter student drug use, the Dade County, Fla., school board voted 6-3 to approve random drug testing of high school students, becoming the largest school district in the nation to approve such tests. With 345,000 students, the Dade school district is the United States' fourth largest. Students whose parents have signed a consent form will be subject to being pulled out of class at random and tested for use of marijuana, cocaine, amphetamines, and other illegal substances. The American Civil Liberties Union said it may challenge the plan in court.

Nation in brief

The cost of college is up 5 percent over last year, according to the annual College Board survey of tuition and fees, an increase three times the growth rate of average family income. Yearly tuition at private, four-year schools now averages $13,664; at public institutions, tuition averages $3,111. Even as college costs escalate, whether or not the finished product is any better, the opposite is taking place in the computer world: The price of computing continues to fall, as computers get faster and more productive. That trend is likely to continue, given IBM's Sept. 22 announcement of a technological breakthrough that will pave the way for making semiconductor chips that are smaller, less expensive, and up to 40 percent more powerful than chips produced today.

On to glory

Christian singer/songwriter Rich Mullins, on his way to a benefit concert in Wichita, Kan., died on a stretch of highway in Illinois. Thrown from an out-of-control car, he was then hit by a passing truck and died on the scene. Mr. Mullins, winner of 12 gospel music Dove awards, was best known for his 1988 song, "Awesome God."

It's the law

Ignoring protests from the West and a personal plea from Vice President Gore to Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, President Boris Yeltsin, under heavy pressure from the dominant Russian Orthodox Church, signed into law a controversial bill restricting religious freedom. The bill, only slightly revised from an earlier version Mr. Yeltsin vetoed, would effectively give preference to the Orthodox Church, as well as to Judaism, Buddhism, and Islam, by prohibiting religious groups active in Russia for less than 15 years from owning property, publishing and disseminating literature, and conducting religious education programs. Affected groups also would not be allowed to invite foreigners to Russia, meaning missionaries could not obtain visas. Seeking to allay Western fears of a widespread religious repression, Russian government officials gave assurances to Western politicians and church leaders that the legislation will not be strictly enforced against larger religious groups, but only against religious "sects" outside the mainstream. An adviser to Mr. Yeltsin offered a theoretical example of the type of group that would be affected: "[A]n organization established yesterday by two mafiosi in order to pray to Elvis Presley." However, Alexy II, patriarch of the Orthodox Church, undercut Kremlin attempts to downplay the seriousness of the bill, saying the legislation would form a strong barrier to foreign missionaries who have "inundated" Russia. A court challenge of the new law is likely. The 1993 Russian constitution proclaims equal treatment for all religions.

It doesn't add up

Richard Riley, the secretary of education, just doesn't get it. After his broadside last week against a pilot education voucher program to allow needy Washington, D.C., students to escape the dismal government schools, Mr. Riley offered what he thought was an olive branch to education reformers. To sweeten the national testing scheme reformers vehemently oppose, the administration will come out against the use in federal math tests of ... calculators. He should be able to count on one hand the net gain of House votes that meaningless concession will bring. So now, the Clinton administration's answer to the education crisis is a calculator-free national test. But serious reformers are pushing educational choice. Mr. Riley's attack on school vouchers comes as the House nears approval of a funding bill for the District of Columbia (D.C. is under congressional jurisdiction) that includes a $7 million plan to give $3,200 tuition vouchers to poor families in the nation's capital. The bill also revokes the National Education Association's property-tax exemption on its Washington headquarters (worth about $1.1 million a year), which Congress granted in 1906. NEA president Robert Chase on Sept. 23 expressed support for the revocation-"We are ready, willing, and able to pay our taxes," he proclaimed-but said the teachers union would go to the mat to block the voucher proposal. "Even if this bill does get out of Congress, I think the president will veto it." House majority leader Dick Armey responded: "I am sadly disappointed that this administration is willing to force children in our most violent, gang-ridden schools to pay the price for defending the failed education bureaucracy." It's a price no calculator can measure.

Paying the price

In a packed Philadelphia courtroom, a teary-eyed John G. Bennett Jr. cast a forlorn gaze into the distance as a federal judge announced his sentence for masterminding the largest charity fraud in U.S. history: 12 years, with no opportunity for parole. From 1989 to 1995, Mr. Bennett enticed hundreds of churches, Bible colleges, and other nonprofit organizations to "invest" with his now-defunct and bankrupt Foundation for New Era Philanthropy, promising participants a 100 percent return on their money in just six months' time. The phenomenal return was made possible, according to New Era claims, by contributions from super-wealthy benefactors who desired to give anonymously to worthy organizations. Investigators later discovered that no such benefactors existed and that New Era was essentially a pyramid scheme, in which the money from early "investors" was doubled using funds coming in from later participants. Even though Mr. Bennett, 60, pleaded no contest in March to an 82-count fraud-related indictment, he insisted at the Sept. 22 sentencing that he "never intended to defraud or hurt anyone." In an emotional 12-minute speech sprinkled with biblical references, he claimed he had been motivated only by a desire to "change the world to the glory of God," but that his desire had given way to obsession, delusion, and fantasy. Although agreeing that Mr. Bennett's mental state was subject "to a very unusual distortion," U.S. District Judge Edmund Ludwig, in pronouncing the sentence, pointed out that the New Era scam had inflicted "incalculable" harm on thousands of institutions and individuals. Under an unusual bankruptcy settlement agreed to last year, most of the $135 million that organizations lost in New Era's 1995 collapse has been recovered and restored. Many Christian organizations that profited from participating in New Era's double-your-money plan agreed to give their returns to groups that lost money.

Depravity watch

A Colorado woman, found guilty of beating to death her nearly three-year-old adopted son with wooden spoons and a hand mirror, was sentenced to 22 years in prison. Renee Polreis claimed young David, adopted from a Russian orphanage, killed himself. She said he suffered from a rare emotional disorder, related to having been abandoned by his birth mother, that caused him to inflict injuries on his own body. Prosecutors, while acknowledging that "reactive attachment disorder" does exist, said the defense never proved the boy had it, nor that he could have inflicted such a severe beating on himself. A family friend testified that, one day before David's death, Mrs. Polreis said, "I just hate him. I can't deal with him anymore." The boy died six months after Mrs. Polreis and her husband adopted him.

It's the law

Ignoring protests from the West and a personal plea from Vice President Gore to Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, President Boris Yeltsin, under heavy pressure from the dominant Russian Orthodox Church, signed into law a controversial bill restricting religious freedom. The bill, only slightly revised from an earlier version Mr. Yeltsin vetoed, would effectively give preference to the Orthodox Church, as well as to Judaism, Buddhism, and Islam, by prohibiting religious groups active in Russia for less than 15 years from owning property, publishing and disseminating literature, and conducting religious education programs. Affected groups also would not be allowed to invite foreigners to Russia, meaning missionaries could not obtain visas. Seeking to allay Western fears of a widespread religious repression, Russian government officials gave assurances to Western politicians and church leaders that the legislation will not be strictly enforced against larger religious groups, but only against religious "sects" outside the mainstream. An adviser to Mr. Yeltsin offered a theoretical example of the type of group that would be affected: "[A]n organization established yesterday by two mafiosi in order to pray to Elvis Presley." However, Alexy II, patriarch of the Orthodox Church, undercut Kremlin attempts to downplay the seriousness of the bill, saying the legislation would form a strong barrier to foreign missionaries who have "inundated" Russia. A court challenge of the new law is likely. The 1993 Russian constitution proclaims equal treatment for all religions.