Political Notes

Clinton signs porn bill

In a new crackdown on child pornography, President Clinton signed into law on Saturday legislation to sharply increase penalties for people convicted of an array of child-sex offenses.

The new law would impose these increases in sentencing guidelines:

Penalties for people convicted of causing a child to engage in sexually explicit conduct before a camera would increase from the present range of 57 to 71 months to 70 to 87 months.

Sentences for those convicted of distributing visual depictions of such activity would rise from the present range of 18 to 24 months to 24 to 30 months.

The sentencing increases would double if a computer was used to transmit child pornography pictures.

Smithsonian to reopen

The National Museum of American History will reopen Tuesday despite the partial shutdown of the federal government after officials shifted private trust fund money to pay some workers.

About 28 of the Smithsonian Institution’s employees will return to work for one week, museum officials said.The National Museum of American History employees will temporarily become “trust employees” for the holiday opening, he said.The National Air and Space

Museum, which generates revenue through its IMAX Theater and the Einstein Planetarium, will also be open from Dec. 26 through Dec. 31. None of the Smithsonian museums charges admission but the Air and Space Museum charges for the theater and planetarium.

Layoffs loom at EPA

The Environmental Protection Agency expects to lay off thousands of workers in the spring - perhaps more than a quarter of its 17,000 employees nationwide - unless the budget negotiations lead to a substantial increase in the agency’s 1996 spending, Clinton administration officials say.

The Republicans do not dispute that cutting the budget will reduce the work force, but argue that the agency could operate more efficiently with fewer people.