Forbes
December 8, 2005
by Associated Press

House and Senate negotiators on Thursday reached an agreement to reauthorize the USA Patriot Act, the government's premier anti-terrorism law, before its major provisions expire at the end of the month, Senate Judiciary chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said.

The agreement would extend for now two of the Patriot Act's most controversial provisions - authorizing roving wiretaps and permitting secret warrants for books, records and other items from businesses, hospitals and organizations such as libraries. Those two provisions would expire in four years under the deal.

The Republican-controlled House had been pushing for those provisions to stay in effect as long as a decade, but negotiators decided to go with the GOP-controlled Senate's suggestion.

Specter announced the deal Thursday morning. Top Judiciary Democrat Patrick Leahy of Vermont has not yet decided whether to support the agreement, a spokesman said.

But the GOP-majority negotiating committee has enough votes to send the House and Senate the compromise if all of the Republican negotiators agree to it.

The House and Senate then would have to pass the compromise before the Patriot Act provisions expire on Dec. 31.

The compromise also makes changes to national security letters, an investigative tool used by the FBI to compel businesses to turn over customer information without a court order or grand jury subpoena.

Under the agreement, the reauthorization specifies that an NSL can be reviewed by a court, and explicitly allows the subjects of national security letters to inform their lawyers that they have received them.

The Bush administration contends that such consultation already is allowed, citing at least two court challenges to NSLs. However, in a letter obtained by the ACLU under the Freedom of Information Act and posted on its Web site, the FBI prohibits the recipient "from disclosing to any person that the FBI has sought or obtained access to information or records under these provisions."