Clinton Gets a Wiretapping Bill That Covers New Technologies

By Sabra Chartrand

Special to the New York Times

WASHINGTON, Oct. 8 -- A last-ditch lobbying effort by the director of the
Federal Bureau of Investigation helped save legislation that forces phone
companies to make their networks accessible to law-enforcement wiretaps as
they switch to digital technology. The bill passed the Senate unanimously
late Friday night and goes to President Clinton, who has said he favors the
legislation.

"Congress worked diligently over a period of many months to fashion this
crucial legislation," the F.B.I. director, Louis J. Freeh, said in. a
statement after he spent Friday on Capitol Hill.  Lobbying. he said, had
overcome "problems that once seemed Insurmountable."

The House approved the bill, which had been long-sought by the Clinton and
Bush Administrations, on Wednesday.  It had been subject to months of
back-room bargaining between the F.B.I. and its opponents -- telephone
companies and privacy advocates who argued that the legislation was
unnecessary. Finally those groups signed off on the measure, so its
supporters expected easy Senate approval.

But at the 11th-hour, a brief flare of opposition from unlikely partners --
a letter and phone campaign that appeared to be supported by religious
groups and the American Civil Liberties Union - prompted several Republican
senators to delay the vote. They were concerned about protests of government
interference in private lives that inundated their fax machines on Friday.

Mr. Freeh had devoted considerable personal time to lobbying for the bill
and made it his agency's highest legislative priority.  He repeatedly argued
that the F.B.I. could not fight crimes like terrorism, espionage and
international drug dealing if telephone technology continued to outpace
eavesdropping abilities.

On Friday, Mr. Freeh made one more trip to Capitol Hill and argued
successfully for the bill.  Privacy groups say they are satisfied that they
at least managed to prevent any expansion of surveillance.  

The compromise legislation forces phone companies to modify their networks
by putting special software on switching stations. The privacy groups fought
to prevent it from broadening law enforcement's power to collect information
about private individuals.  When first introduced by the Hush
Administration, the bill allowed wiretap access to online computer
communications like electronic mall messages.  Privacy groups said that
information would be too personal and detailed, so online service providers
were exempted from the equipment modifications. The police will also need a
court-ordered warrant to obtain E-mail addresses,  instead of the more
easily obtained subpoena they must now have.

Law-enforcement officials were also prohibited from using tracing devices
that trap phone numbers as they are dialed to collect information like bank
account numbers keyed into touch-tone phones.

The bill offered $500 million in government subsidies to help the phone
companies pay for the new software and equipment over the next four years.
But the companies balked at having to pay once that money ran out.  So the
bill's final version appoints the Federal Communications Commission to hold
public hearings on additional requests for subsidies.  Congress ordered the
General Accounting Office to report every two years on industry
modifications.  The phone companies disliked the bill because they said they
were already cooperating with wiretapping requests.  And they still maintain
it will cost billions of dollars that may be passed on to consumers.