House Votes to Weaken Anti Terror Bill Washington, March 13 (Reuter) -- The House of Representatives Wednesday removed major provisions of an anti-terrorism bill in a vote that sponsors of the legislation said would gut the measure. An amendment, adopted 246-171 by conservative Republicans and some liberal Democrats, removed language that would give the government authority to label groups as terrorist so foreign members can be deported more easily. It also prohibits use of wiretap evidence obtained without a warrant. "We do not need to give our government vast new powers," Georgia Republican Bob Barr, the amendment's author, said before the vote. He said current laws were strong enough. "With the Barr amendment this is not a real anti-terrorism bill," said Republican Henry Hyde of Illinois, the bill's main sponsor and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. Hyde said an unusual coalition of groups including the conservative National Rifle Association and the liberal American Civil Liberties Union were opposing the bill because they thought it gave the federal government too much power. Hyde said one Republican colleague told him privately, " 'I trust Hamas (the militant Islamic group) more than my own government.' "