The Week - actions by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, the US Congress, and others, following the World Trade Center disaster

-- The war, we are told, will require cold-bloodedness, deception, and the black arts. Fear not: Rep. Gary Condit (D., Calif.) has been appointed to the newly formed Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security.

-- When they reopened, the markets proceeded to fall by a larger percentage than in any other week since 1933. More than a trillion dollars of wealth was wiped out. Unemployment is rising. The war is scrambling business plans; it will probably cause large investments, and purchases, to be deferred. Now would be a good time for an economic-growth package. Yet Republicans are dithering. They should keep in mind the alternative. Now that the Social Security "lockbox" has been picked, the extra billions will be used. If Republicans do not use them to finance pro-growth tax cuts, Democrats will push for their own wish list: An expansion of Medicaid. Larger, and longer-lasting, unemployment benefits. A minimum-wage boost. Republicans should take these government-expanding, economically harmful ideas off the table with an agenda of their own. The capital-gains tax should be cut, permanently. Pending reductions in income-tax rates should be sped up. Business should get tax cuts, too. And Congress should make it easier for President Bush to negotiate free-trade deals. If Democrats demand tax rebates for low-income workers as the price for speedy passage of growth legislation, Republicans should make a deal. The most important thing the government can do to help the economy is to start winning the war. But economic policy can do its part, too.

-- A week and a half into the crisis of his city, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani alluded to the secret of his leadership. In one of the dozens of press conferences he has held since the disaster struck, he was discussing whether New Yorkers would begin to resume their normal routines. "Hundreds of people," he said, had told him they wanted to do just that. He was telling the truth-but not the whole truth. Hundreds of people had told him that, because he had been telling millions of people what he knew and didn't know, what they could and couldn't do. Inspiring, informing, stoically grieving, the mayor spoke to the best in every New Yorker-and then, having helped to draw the best forth, pretended that it had come to him unbidden. This tough, odd, and sometimes limited man leaves office on the highest of high notes.

-- The anti-terrorism bill before Congress contains several useful, indeed overdue, provisions. It would enable the Justice Department to detain aliens suspected of breaking the law for 48 hours or, in emergencies, longer, before charging them with a crime; the current rule allows for only 24 hours. The bill would also allow "roving wiretaps": Instead of requiring a new authorization every time a suspect switches phones, a wiretap could be authorized for any phone call a suspect makes from any phone. But the bill is much too broad. As Dave Kopel has pointed out on National Review Online, its definition of terrorism includes throwing a rock through a post-office window and vandalizing a sign outside the building of a dictatorial government (such as the Embassy of Sudan). Such offenses should be punished, but not subject to the same penalties as actual terrorism. In addition, some of the expanded law-enforcement powers would apply not only to terrorism, even broadly defined, but to drug and other offenses. The bill is being sold as an emergency measure. But it is not temporary: There is no provision for the expanded governmental powers in the bill to lapse after a few years. Congress should pass a stripped-down bill, one narrowly designed to reduce terrorist threats.

-- There was a plausible case for bailing out the airlines: The federal government had shut them down, after all, and an act of war had made their futures precarious. Congress was clearly right to limit the airlines' liability for losses suffered because of the attacks. But Congress is also giving the airlines subsidies-including $5 billion in direct grants-that will encourage other claimants to line up on Capitol Hill. Already travel agents, airline workers, the insurance industry, and Amtrak are asking for handouts. Ronald Utt of the Heritage Foundation had a better idea: The government could have bought $5 billion worth of prepaid tickets for use in future federal business travel. Airlines would have gotten needed funds without any corporate welfare. But the bill has already become law. What should Washington do the next time the airlines have trouble? Approve their merger requests rapidly. Allow the private sector to expand airport capacity. And lighten the tax and regulatory load on business generally.

-- Federal involvement in airport security may also increase. The whole system needs an upgrade, starting with the untrained and poorly paid mall cops currently in charge of passenger screening. But don't expect too much of safety regulations. Taken too far, they end up making planes safer mainly in the sense that terrorists can't hijack jets that don't take off because they're chronically underbooked. If air travel becomes too inconvenient, the bailout just passed will be only the first of many. Already there are signs of regulatory overreach. The indefinite closing of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport is one. None of the hijackers boarded planes from there, and a nearby airport that admitted hijackers targeting the Pentagon-Dulles International Airport, in Virginia-remains open for business. There's a balance to be struck here, and the authorities don't appear to be finding it.