By KAREN GULLO

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration has not asked Congress for money in its new budget to pay for a massive lawsuit against big tobacco companies, prompting speculation that the Justice Department will not continue with the case.

The administration has requested $1.8 million to pay salaries and staff costs for the tobacco litigation team in the department's civil division, Justice officials said. No money has been sought for legal work, such as gathering and analyzing millions of documents that tobacco companies have asked to see.

President Bush on Wednesday expressed reservations about continuing the lawsuit, opposed by Republicans and members of Congress from tobacco-producing states. He said he has not decided whether to drop the suit.

"I do worry about a litigious society," Bush said in an interview with Fox News. "I remember as the governor of Texas that we had all kinds of major lawsuits against tobacco -- as in every other state. At some point enough is enough."

Justice officials said Bush's budget request for tobacco litigation is the same as what the Clinton administration asked for last year -- $1.8 million for salaries and no specific amount for litigation costs.

But officials would not say whether the department will seek money from other agencies to pay for the lawsuit, which the Clinton White House did.

Attorney General John Ashcroft is reviewing the case, a spokeswoman said.

"The case is proceeding in the normal course and we will continue to evaluate it," said Susan Dryden, a Justice Department spokewoman.

Ashcroft opposed the litigation when he was a senator.

Also Wednesday, a senior Justice Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the litigation team might be replaced on grounds it botched the job.

The Justice Department suit, filed in September 1999, accused big tobacco companies of putting profits before health by concealing data showing that nicotine is addictive and that smoking causes disease. The government seeks to recover hundreds of millions of dollars in medical costs borne by federal health programs over the years to pay for smoking-related illness.

Tobacco companies have denied the charges.

Last year a federal judge threw out half of the suit's claims, saying that if the government wanted to recover expenses dating to the 1950s, it should have acted sooner.

The developments followed news that agency lawyers working on the case warned Ashcroft that the suit might have to be dropped because there was not enough money in the budget.

Their warning was contained in a March 12 memo, reported Wednesday in The Washington Post, that said more $57 million was needed this year to keep the case going.

Anti-tobacco activists said the case is in jeopardy and accused the Bush administration of trying to appease Big Tobacco.

"No decision is a decision to kill the litigation," said William Corr, executive vice president of National Center for Tobacco-Free Kids.

Republicans and members of Congress from tobacco states oppose the litigation and have tried to block the Justice Department from getting money to continue the suit.

But Congress allowed about $11 million from other federal agencies to be redirected to the Justice Department to pay for the litigation. Lawmakers could do the same this year, Dryden said. She could not confirm whether the department needs another $57 million.

Dryden said the decision about whether to continue the suit was a policy matter, not a budget issue. But money is crucial to the government's ability to process millions of pages of tobacco industry documents, some dating to 1954, and a huge number of government documents the industry wants to see. A trial was to begin in January 2003.

The lawsuit names Philip Morris Inc.; Philip Morris Companies; R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.; American Tobacco Co.; Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp.; British-American Tobacco P.L.C.; British-American Tobacco (Investments) Ltd.; Lorillard Tobacco Co. Inc.; Liggett and Myers Inc.; the Council for Tobacco Research U.S.A. Inc., and the Tobacco Institute Inc.

04/26/2001 01:32
APO