NATION IN BRIEF : WASHINGTON, D. C. : Bill Would Expand Environment Panel

The House approved legislation that would expand the power of a White House environmental agency that critics said was allowed to atrophy under the Ronald Reagan Administration. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Gerry E. Studds (D-Mass.), would give the Council on Environmental Quality power to require federal agencies to take into account the effects of their actions on the world environment. Such issues as acid rain, ocean pollution, the ozone layer and global climatic change would come under the council’s purview. The bill now goes to the Senate.