CLINTON SCORES AS CRIME BILL GETS PRELIMINARY NOD

The much debated Crime Bill scraped through a House-Senate committee today, and faces a full congressional vote within the next two weeks. "There will be a certain amount of rhetoric from both sides," says Laurence I. Barrett, TIME Washington contributor. "But I don't think it will defeat the bill." The legislation would ban some assault weapons, punish three-time felons with life sentences and add many crimes to the growing list of death-penalty offenses. The price tag for carrying out the law's mandates: $32.4 billion. What's missing from the grab bag is the controversial Racial Justice Act, which would have allowed death-row inmates to appeal their sentences if, using racial statistics, they could indicate bias. That battle was fought, and lost, by the Congressional Black Caucus. The crime bill's biggest winner would be President Clinton, who spent a year lobbying for it.