By JESSE J. HOLLAND
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - A Senate attempt to quickly pass President Bush's anti-terrorism legislation failed Tuesday after a Democratic senator refused to let the bill go through without debate or amendment.

"I can't quite understand why we can't have just a few hours of debate," said Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., who wants to limit some of the police powers in the Senate legislation.

The House and Senate last week came up with anti-terrorism bills based on an outline offered by Attorney General John Ashcroft, who has been urging Congress to quickly pass the bill.

Senate and House leadership both have said they would try to get the bill passed this week, and when Senate negotiations on an airline security bill stalled, Senate Majority Leader Thomas Daschle, D-S.D., asked senators to unanimously agree to move on to the anti-terrorism bill.

Under Daschle's plan, the Senate would have voted on final passage of the bill Wednesday evening and senators would not be allowed to offer amendments. But Feingold refused to go along with it, saying he wanted to add four amendments that would limit some of its police powers.

Feingold wants to eliminate a provision in the bill that would allow police to search suspects' home secretly, narrow a provision that allows federal officials to wiretap telephones, keep the FBI from being able to access Americans' personal records and clarify the federal government's ability to wiretap computers.

"It is crucial that civil liberties in this country be preserved, he said. "Otherwise the terrorists will win the battle against American values without firing another shot."

The anti-terrorism bill now will have to wait until senators finish the aviation bill, and that worries some senators. "There is a danger that the aviation bill will tangle up the rest of this week, and we won't be able to get to it until next week," said Senate Republican leader Trent Lott, R-Miss.

The House, meanwhile, is expected to move on an anti-terrorism bill before the end of the week. However, House aides say administration officials are pressuring House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., to take the Senate bill instead of the bill approved by the House Judiciary Committee.

The Bush administration prefers the Senate bill to the House bill, which eliminates most of the bill's police power in 2004. The House bill also does not have money-laundering provisions requested by the White House.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said regardless of what is in either bill, it will be changed in negotiations between the House and Senate. The House-Senate conference committee bill "will be the final package," Leahy said.

___

The bill numbers are HR 2975 and S. 1510.

On the Net:

Senate Judiciary Committee: http://judiciary.senate.gov

House Judiciary Committee: http://www.house.gov/judiciary

For bill text: http://thomas.loc.gov