Senate Passes Leahy Anti-Terrorism Package That Will Triple Staffing On The Northern Border WASHINGTON (Fri., Oct. 12) – The U.S. Senate late Thursday overwhelmingly passed the anti-terrorism bill negotiated by Senator Patrick Leahy that will triple the Border Guards and INS and Customs agents along the Northern Border. The bill passed the Senate close to Midnight Thursday in a vote of 96 to 1. Leahy, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, headed three weeks of negotiations with the White House and the Department of Justice on the bill, which will give the FBI a wide range of new law enforcement tools ranging from faster and better information-sharing between the FBI and INS agents on U.S. borders, to sweeping new money-laundering curbs, to expedited hiring of new translators for the FBI. Leahy added checks and balances throughout the bill to help ensure against abuses of the new powers given to law enforcement agencies. The Vermont senator designed his Northern Border provisions, which also include technology upgrades, to thwart the entry of terrorists, but in ways that do not fundamentally change the character of the U.S.-Canada frontier. "We have made this a far better bill by actually taking the time to read and improve the Administration’s original suggestions," said Leahy. The House of Representatives will debate its version of the anti-terrorism bill on Friday. # # # # # [Details of the Senate anti-terrorism package are available on the Leahy home page,