The White House focused on a new round of tax rebates, an idea backed by many Democrats. Federally financed but limited stem cell research would be explicitly allowed for the first time, and President Bush would have discretion over how to do it, under a bill approved Wednesday by a Senate subcommittee. A Democratic lawmaker proposed an amendment to the Constitution on Wednesday to deal with a doomsday situation in which one-fourth of House members are killed, disabled or missing in a terrorist attack. In a tricky balancing act, the banking industry is trying to force changes in anti-terrorism legislation without appearing unpatriotic or uninterested in catching criminals. One month later, Americans have removed 260,000 tons of rubble from the World Trade Center and created unknown tons in Afghanistan.
Smoke spires from ruins in both lands.
The State Department has advised all U.S. diplomatic outposts to stock a three-day supply of a drug designed to counter anthrax. Worries about terrorist attacks against the nation's reservoirs, dams and power and chemical plants have government and industry clamoring for billions of dollars in new aid from Congress. The chairman of a Senate committee involved with Amtrak wants Congress to abandon the law that threatens the future of the national rail service if it still needs taxpayer help after December 2002. North Carolina has a long-range state plan, but money is available for just 20 of its 100 counties. The House voted Wednesday to make it easier for students to take classes over the Internet by relaxing restrictions on correspondence courses that can be taken without forfeiting federal aid.