Associated Press NrW^l DlGFST Nefiaskan
Edited by Todd Cooper J. T|J_/ J Y VJ X ****** March it, ims
Republicans succeed installing voter registration bill
WASHINGTON—The Senate
failed by a single vote Tuesday to
end GOP stalling tactics barring
passage of bill making voter regis
tration easier.
The 59-41 vote fell one short of
the 60 needed to end a filibuster.
Senate Majority Leader George
Mitchell of Maine said a second
tempt to limit debate on the bill
would be held Wednesday morn
ing.
The vote came moments after
Mitchell accused Senate Republi
cans of perpetuating legislative
“gridlock” by repeated stalling and
delays.
Three Republicans who had pre
viously voted with the chamber’s
57 Democrats to limit debate re
versed course on concerns about
the bill’s provision enabling voter
registration at public assistance
offices. They were David
Durenberger of Minnesota, Bob
Packwood of Oregon and Arlen
Specter of Pennsylvania.
Two other Republicans, Mark
Hatfield of Oregon and James M.
Jeffords of Vermont, voted to limit
debate as they have in the past.
Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
said it was feared that citizens ap
plying for welfare and other ben
efits would be subjected to coer
cion to register and vote for the
party favored by welfare workers.
Democrats said there was no
evidence that such coercion would
occur.
Mitchell complained that Re
publicans first forced a two-day
delay m bringing the bill to the
floor for debate, then caused re
peated delays as the Senate de
bated the merits of the voter regis
tration bill in the two weeks that
followed.
‘Theproblem is those who don’t
want the Senate to vote on this
legislation,” Mitchell said.
“No one should be fooled or
misled about who is causing de
lay,” Mitchell said.
He called on Republicans to
“stop filibustering every bill the
Senate wants to bring up and end
legislative gridlock.*
Sen. John Chafee, R-R.I. called
the legislation “petty" and said that
states should be allowed to decide
the rule of voter registration for
themselves.
— §«-—I
No one should be looted or misled about who is
causing delay.
--Mitchell
Senate majority leader
--- -
“I think it is bad legislation and
I hope it goes deservedly down the
drain,” Chafee said.
Mitchell said the problem for
Republicans was that the more con
venient voter registration permit
ted by the bill would allow Ameri
cans to vote in greater numbers
than ever before.
“And they are afraid that they
won ’ t vote for them,” Mitchell said.
i _ .
“Let’s get every American reg
istered and voting and then let the
chips fall where they may,” Mitchell
said.
The so-called motor-voter bill
would permit registration by mail,
at motor vehicle offices, at welfare
agencies and at a host of other
places where Americans apply for
the benefits and services of state
and local governments.
Treasury secretary
calls for $45 billion
to finish S&L cleanup
WASHINGTON—Treasury Sec
retary Lloyd Bentsen asked Congress
Tuesday for $45 billion to finish the
savings and loan cleanup and asserted
the nation would pay “a far greater
price, and deservedly so” if lawmak
ers refused.
The request would bring the total
spentorpromisedonS&Lssince 1988
to more than $200 billion.
The size of the Clinton
administration's requestto the House
Backing Committee was $1 Trillion
higher than the estimate issued by the
Bush administration in January.
Private analysts contended Bentsen
had inflated his request but they said
it was better to ask for too much rather
than seek too little and have to ask for
another politically painful vote.
Rep. Jim Leach, R-Iowa, told
Bentsen that gaining approval even
once for additional S&L money would
be tough. Leach advised the adminis
tration to include the money in a
larger appropriations bill.
The treasury secretary said law
makers had little choice but to con
tinue paying for the cleanup. The
alternative, he said, was to allow fai led
institutions to remain open and run up
even larger losses.
The cleanup agency, the Resolu
tion Trust Corp., has been without
i ■ ■ 11 1 »
Nebraskan
Editor Chris Hoplensperger
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Managing Editor Alan Phelps
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Arts & Entertain- Mark Baldrldga
ment Editor
Diversions Editor Kim Spurlock
Photo Chief Klley Tlmperley
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Mike Lewis
Steve Smith
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Advertising Manager Jay Cruse
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Publications Board
Chairman Doug Fiedler
436-7862
Professional Adviser Don Walton
473- 7301
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1993 DAILY NEBRASKAN
spending authority since April, and
Bentsen said that has added $1.1 bil
lion to the cost.
“I know ... it is a tough vote,” he
said. “But I also know that this is a
vote for depositors, for the safety of
our financial institutions, and that if
we fail to meet this obligation, we will
pay a far greater price and deservedly
so.”
Bentsen said he believed this would
be the last request to Congress for
S&L cleanup-money but could not
promise that. “If fbeTultamount pro
vided is not needed, it will not be
drawn from the Treasury,” he said.
He praised Albert Casey, who re
signed effective Monday as president
of the RTC but promised “dramatic
improvements” in management now
that Deputy Treasury Secretary Roger
Altman is interim head of the agency.
Rep. Toby Roth, R-Wis., said Bentsen
had forced Casey to resign, and he
asked why, noting that Casey had
promised to finish the job for $25
billion.
Bentsen never replied directly but
said he believed Casey arrived at that
figure largely by shifting the respon
sibility and some of the cost to another
agency, the Federal Deposit Insur
ance Corp.
The $45 billion requested by
S&L Bailout
If Congress approves the
new appropriation of $45
million, it would bring total
bailout spending since 1988 to over
$200 billion. This includes $70 billion
estimated cost of fulfilling the FSLIC's
promises made in 1988 bailout deals,
and $87 billion in three other
appropriations.
Current request for $45 billion
$28 billion $17 billion
portion allocated portion to go to
for 83 current
failures
--^|7b«llon
December 1991
AP
Bentsen would be split between the
RTC and a new insurance fund for the
S&L industry, the Savings Associa
tion Insurance Fund (SAIF), which
will operate under the control of the
Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
The RTC would get $28 billion to
protect depositors in the 83 failed
institutions operating under its direc
tion and in at least 35 more S&Ls
expected to fail by Sept. 30.
The rest of the money would go to
the insurance fund, to handle an esti
mated 157 failures between October
1993 and the end of 1998.
Yeltsin: Russian lawmakers
trying to restore Communism
MOSCOW — Warning that
Russia’s democratic reforms are in
grave danger. President Boris Yeltsin
charged Tuesday that the hard-line
parliament is trying to “restore the
Communist regime” and appealed for
greater Western aid.
In his first public appearance since
storming out of a humiliating session
of Congress of People’s Deputies on
Friday, Yeltsin said he had not de
cided how to respond to the growing
political crisis.
i> < #
“The results of the Congress give
us serious grounds for alarm. The
Congress did not solve, rather it deep
ened, the constitutional crisis,” Yeltsin
said at a Kremlin news conference
with French President Francois
Mitterrand.
Mitterrand made a one-day visit to
show Western support for Yeltsin af
ter last week moves by the 1,033
member Congress to sharply curb the
Russian president’s power to carry
out reforms.
“I see a very serious danger posed
to democracy and reform. I can see
there is an attempt to restore the Com
munist regime of the Soviets,” Yeltsir
said.
Mitterrand’s visit was the latest in
aperies of meetings with Westcrr
leaders concerned about Yeltsin’*
political survival.
Last week, German Chancelloi
Helmut Kohl met with the Russiar
president in Moscow for 90 minutes
In two weeks, he will meet Presiden
Clinton in Vancouver, British Co
lumbia, for a two-day summit.
Fire guts Chicago hotel;
14 dead, 20 hospitalized
CHICAGO — A fire that ripped
through a residence hotel Tuesday
killed 14 people, including three who
jumped to their deaths rather than
face the flames and smoke. Others
tied sheets together and climbed out
upper floors.
Some of the 130 residents regis
tered at the Paxton Hotel weren’t ac
counted for. Twenty people were
brought to hospitals.
When firefighters arrived at the
four-story hotel, dozens of panicked
residents were gathered at windows
or dangled from them as wind
whipped flames rose 15 feet in the air
above die roof and blazed out other
windows.
The 65-year-old building had nei
ther sprinklers nor fire escapes, though
officials said it met all city codes.
“The smoke was so intense, I
couldn’t see the flames, and it was
driving people out the windows,” said
45-year-old resident Minnie Byrd,
who was reading in her third-floor
room when she smelled smoke from
the early morning fire. “I thought I
had to jump, too.
“I was praying real hard. I got one
leg out the side and a fireman said,
‘Wait! Wait!’ and got the ladder to
me.” Some of the roughly 130 resi
dents registered at the four-story
Paxton Hotel weren’t accounted for
by Tuesday afternoon.
Rescuers used heavy equipment to
search the rubble because the par
tially collapsed building was too dan
gerous to send searchers inside.
Victims lay on the ground, some
The smoke was so
intense, / couldn’t see
the fiames, and it was
driving people out the
windows.
- Byrd
Hotel resident
-99 -
shouting in pain, while firefighters
concentrated on rescuing people rather
than fighting the blaze. :j .
Robert Crowder, 61, complained
that bars on the windows of his first
floor apartment prevented him from
escaping.
“There was no way to get out,”
Crowder said. “So I had to yell until I
could attract the attention of firemen.
They came up with a saw to saw
through the bars. By this time, flames
were coming through the door, and
smoke was curling under the door.”
Some residents tied sheets together
and climbed out upper floors. Others
jumped.
Authorities found 10 bodies inside
the building. One person pulled from
a window was later declared dead.
Some people apparently were over
come as they slept Several died after
being trapped on upper floors and one
body was found in a closet.
The fire was under investigation
because it traveled quickly up two of
three stairwells in the building, 1 1/2
miles north of the downtown Loop,
blocking escape for dozens of people.
I-World Wire
Serbs renege on pledge to allow aid
SARAJEVO, Bosnia
Herzegovina— Bosnian Serb lead
ers played with the hopes of the
hungry in eastern Bosnia Tuesday,
first pledging to allow aid in, then
later imposing conditions.
And as leaders of the warring
factions prepared to resume peace
talks in New York, Serb forces
besieging Sarajevo subjected the
Bosnian capital to its heaviest artil
lery pounding in weeks.
Ham radio operators in eastern
Srebrenica reported four or five
more villages in eastern Bosnia fell
to Serb forces sweeping southward
on a two-week offensive. That
could not be independently con
firmed.
Tens of thousands of refugees
from the Serb ad vance are crowded
into Srebrenica.
They have pinned their hopes on
an aid convoy, halted since Thurs
day by Serb forces at the Y ugoslav -
Bosnian border.
Marine wounded in Somalia firefight
MOGADISHU, Somalia —
Fighters for the man known as Gen.
Morgan reportedly captured the
southern port of Kismayu from a
rival dan leader Tuesday. A third
Somali warlord accused the United
Stales of taking sides,
i In a separate incident in the
Bakara market, a U.S. Marine was
t wounded in a firefight with two
' A
Somalis, one of whom was shot to
death by three other Marines.
Marine Col. Fred Peck, the U.S.
military spokesman few Operation
Restore Hope, said Mohamed Said
Hirsi, called Gen. Morgan, broke
the cease-fire that had produced a
semblance of peace for the 170,000
residents of Kismayu.