Clinton Pushes His Plan for More Police : Congress: President announces $434 million in grants for hiring new officers. Move coincides with GOP efforts to change anti-crime measure.

WASHINGTON —  Fighting to keep alive his pledge to put 100,000 more police officers on the nation’s streets, President Clinton on Wednesday announced the awarding of $434 million in federal grants that will enable 6,661 small local law enforcement agencies to hire 7,105 police officers.

The announcement coincided with efforts underway by Republicans on Capitol Hill to redesign the President’s 1994 anti-crime legislation--largely to do away with some of the measure’s crime-prevention programs in favor of provisions perceived as tougher on criminals.

In a second day of work on the anti-crime legislation, the House voted, 289 to 142, to allow wider use of evidence gathered by law enforcement officers acting in “good faith,” whether or not they are in possession of a search warrant.

While Republicans said the measure would be a boon to crime-fighting efforts, Democrats condemned it as a violation of Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures.

The House also approved, by a 228-198 vote, an amendment proposed by Rep. Harold L. Volkmer (D-Mo.) that would exclude the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms from the relaxed rules on evidence. Seventy-three Republicans voted for the amendment--which had the support of the National Rifle Assn.--despite opposition from the GOP leadership.

Later Wednesday, the House, by a vote of 297 to 132, approved a measure to place time limits of one year in state cases and two years in federal cases for an inmate to appeal a death sentence.

“Convicted murderers on Death Row regularly make a mockery of the criminal justice system by using every trick in the book to delay the imposition of a death sentence,” said Rep. Bill McCollum (R-Fla.).

The awards announced by the President on Wednesday, when combined with previously announced police-hiring grants, raises to 16,671 the number of new officers who can be hired under the program.

The grants pay up to 75% of a new officer’s salary over three years, to a maximum of $75,000 per officer. The remainder of the salary is to be paid through state or local funds.

Associate Atty. Gen. John Schmidt said the awards would not be jeopardized by Republican efforts to scrap the program because money for them has already been appropriated.

Schmidt acknowledged, however, that reaching the goal of 100,000 new police officers is “endangered” by a Republican plan to replace grants for new police officers with no-strings-attached block grants, which cities could use for other purposes.

While Clinton said Wednesday that he generally supports giving more flexibility to states and localities, he insisted that his program is the appropriate response to “a national interest in having 100,000 more police officers” as deterrents to crime.

The House Republicans’ proposal for the block grants has succeeded in eroding once-staunch support among the nation’s mayors for the President’s pledge of 100,000 new officers. But the mayors are less than completely enthusiastic about the GOP plan because it would funnel the grant money through governors, who then would have some latitude to dispense it. On Jan. 26, the U.S. Conference of Mayors voted to take no position on the GOP proposal.