New York Times
July 30, 2003
Model-Rocket Bill Stirs Debate
By Eric Lichtblau
WASHINGTON, July 29 — At a time when Congress has been seeking to strip terrorists of potential tools, some lawmakers are pushing legislation that opponents say would do just the opposite by easing restrictions on explosives used in model rockets.
Legislation pending in the Senate would exempt some model-rocket propellants from toughened restrictions on explosives that were imposed by Congress last year in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
The proposed exemption grew out of complaints from rocket hobbyists who said the new regulations would essentially ground them by requiring many users of model rockets to register with the federal government and go through background checks before using certain regulated explosives to launch their rockets.
But the effort to lift those restrictions is now drawing sharp objections from several lawmakers and from the Justice Department, which warned that one version of the legislation would give terrorists the power to hit targets five miles away.
Senators Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, and Frank R. Lautenberg, Democrat of New Jersey, standing alongside a seven-foot-high model rocket at a news conference today, said the proposal would allow terrorists to exploit a loophole to gather explosive materials used in numerous bombings.
"Why anyone in the post-9/11 world would think making it easier to get bomb-making material is a good idea is beyond me," Mr. Schumer said.
Backers of the exemption accused Mr. Schumer and the Justice Department of exaggerating the threat. It was an unusual reversal of traditional political alignments in the debate over how far the government should go to deter terrorism. The Democrats, who have cast themselves as strong defenders of civil liberties in that debate, pushed today for a more aggressive crackdown on terrorist tools, while Republicans emphasized the need to respect the freedoms of rocket hobbyists.
Senator Michael B. Enzi, a Wyoming Republican who has been the main advocate of exempting the hobby from explosives regulations, accused Democratic senators and federal officials of trying "to squash efforts to preserve a constructive, educational and important hobby enjoyed by millions of Americans."
Mr. Enzi said the Democratic effort to kill the legislation "doesn't make Americans that much safer, but it does make us more fearful and less free."
Since the Sept. 11 attacks, Congress and the Bush administration have moved to restrict numerous tools that they believed terrorists could employ, imposing new restrictions on overseas financial transactions, cellphone technology, carry-on items on airplanes, government Internet information and other areas.
Regulations imposed by Congress last year in the Safe Explosives Act restricted several chemicals used in high-power rocketry, including a propellant known as APCP and a compound known as black powder.
The Justice Department, in a June 10 letter declaring that it "strongly opposed" lifting the restrictions, noted that APCP is classified as an explosive and is so powerful that it is used in the boosters for space shuttles. The legislation as originally conceived "will harm homeland security by providing terrorists and other criminals with unrestricted access to rocket motors containing large amounts of explosive material, as well as to igniters and fuses that can be used to initiate explosive devices," wrote William E. Moschella, an assistant attorney general.
Since the Justice Department lodged those objections, Republicans agreed to a compromise limiting the amount of chemicals hobbyists can buy at one time.
Jorge Martinez, a Justice Department spokesman, refused comment on the department's concerns, and Mr. Moschella did not return calls. But Mr. Schumer said the department has told him it remained opposed to the proposal.
But Senator Orrin G. Hatch, the Utah Republican who leads the judiciary committee, said the compromise "minimizes the burdens on law-abiding citizens without jeopardizing the safety and security of our nation."
The new version was approved by Mr. Hatch's committee last month by a vote of 16 to 2, but Senators Schumer and Lautenberg have blocked the measure from coming to a full Senate vote without 60 votes, officials said.
In addition to the concerns about APCP, Mr. Schumer said he remained worried about allowing hobbyists unregulated access to black powder because the chemical has been used in bombs constructed by Theodore Kaczynski, the Unabomber; Richard Reid, who was convicted of trying to detonate a shoe bomb on a trans-Atlantic flight; and Eric Rudolph, accused in the Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta.
Hobbyists, pointing to data of their own on the safety of model rocketry materials, said the senators were distorting the scientific record.
"These rockets can't be used as weapons," said Mark Bundick, president of the National Association of Rocketry. "They don't have guidance systems, they don't have enough payload, they don't have enough range, so to suggest that these materials could be used by terrorists is just untrue. And you cannot turn this stuff into a bomb."
July 30, 2003
Model-Rocket Bill Stirs Debate
By Eric Lichtblau
WASHINGTON, July 29 — At a time when Congress has been seeking to strip terrorists of potential tools, some lawmakers are pushing legislation that opponents say would do just the opposite by easing restrictions on explosives used in model rockets.
Legislation pending in the Senate would exempt some model-rocket propellants from toughened restrictions on explosives that were imposed by Congress last year in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
The proposed exemption grew out of complaints from rocket hobbyists who said the new regulations would essentially ground them by requiring many users of model rockets to register with the federal government and go through background checks before using certain regulated explosives to launch their rockets.
But the effort to lift those restrictions is now drawing sharp objections from several lawmakers and from the Justice Department, which warned that one version of the legislation would give terrorists the power to hit targets five miles away.
Senators Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, and Frank R. Lautenberg, Democrat of New Jersey, standing alongside a seven-foot-high model rocket at a news conference today, said the proposal would allow terrorists to exploit a loophole to gather explosive materials used in numerous bombings.
"Why anyone in the post-9/11 world would think making it easier to get bomb-making material is a good idea is beyond me," Mr. Schumer said.
Backers of the exemption accused Mr. Schumer and the Justice Department of exaggerating the threat. It was an unusual reversal of traditional political alignments in the debate over how far the government should go to deter terrorism. The Democrats, who have cast themselves as strong defenders of civil liberties in that debate, pushed today for a more aggressive crackdown on terrorist tools, while Republicans emphasized the need to respect the freedoms of rocket hobbyists.
Senator Michael B. Enzi, a Wyoming Republican who has been the main advocate of exempting the hobby from explosives regulations, accused Democratic senators and federal officials of trying "to squash efforts to preserve a constructive, educational and important hobby enjoyed by millions of Americans."
Mr. Enzi said the Democratic effort to kill the legislation "doesn't make Americans that much safer, but it does make us more fearful and less free."
Since the Sept. 11 attacks, Congress and the Bush administration have moved to restrict numerous tools that they believed terrorists could employ, imposing new restrictions on overseas financial transactions, cellphone technology, carry-on items on airplanes, government Internet information and other areas.
Regulations imposed by Congress last year in the Safe Explosives Act restricted several chemicals used in high-power rocketry, including a propellant known as APCP and a compound known as black powder.
The Justice Department, in a June 10 letter declaring that it "strongly opposed" lifting the restrictions, noted that APCP is classified as an explosive and is so powerful that it is used in the boosters for space shuttles. The legislation as originally conceived "will harm homeland security by providing terrorists and other criminals with unrestricted access to rocket motors containing large amounts of explosive material, as well as to igniters and fuses that can be used to initiate explosive devices," wrote William E. Moschella, an assistant attorney general.
Since the Justice Department lodged those objections, Republicans agreed to a compromise limiting the amount of chemicals hobbyists can buy at one time.
Jorge Martinez, a Justice Department spokesman, refused comment on the department's concerns, and Mr. Moschella did not return calls. But Mr. Schumer said the department has told him it remained opposed to the proposal.
But Senator Orrin G. Hatch, the Utah Republican who leads the judiciary committee, said the compromise "minimizes the burdens on law-abiding citizens without jeopardizing the safety and security of our nation."
The new version was approved by Mr. Hatch's committee last month by a vote of 16 to 2, but Senators Schumer and Lautenberg have blocked the measure from coming to a full Senate vote without 60 votes, officials said.
In addition to the concerns about APCP, Mr. Schumer said he remained worried about allowing hobbyists unregulated access to black powder because the chemical has been used in bombs constructed by Theodore Kaczynski, the Unabomber; Richard Reid, who was convicted of trying to detonate a shoe bomb on a trans-Atlantic flight; and Eric Rudolph, accused in the Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta.
Hobbyists, pointing to data of their own on the safety of model rocketry materials, said the senators were distorting the scientific record.
"These rockets can't be used as weapons," said Mark Bundick, president of the National Association of Rocketry. "They don't have guidance systems, they don't have enough payload, they don't have enough range, so to suggest that these materials could be used by terrorists is just untrue. And you cannot turn this stuff into a bomb."
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