Yahoo News
December 13, 2005
by Reuters
U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales traveled to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to increase pressure on legislators to renew the USA Patriot Act and warned that letting the measure expire would hurt law enforcement efforts against terrorism.
The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to pass a compromise version of the bill on Wednesday. But vocal opposition in the Senate over civil liberties concerns has left chances for extending the law in doubt.
Parts of the Patriot Act, which was swiftly enacted after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, will expire on December 31 if the U.S. Congress does not act.
"The tools in the reauthorization of the Patriot Act are very important to the success of the Department of Justice in protecting this country," Gonzales told reporters after meeting with lawmakers.
SOME WANT MORE PROTECTIONS
A coalition of conservative and liberal lobbying groups and some politically diverse senators are calling for tougher civil liberties measures, like those unanimously passed by the Senate earlier this year that would have strengthened privacy protections.
Short of that, opponents of the compromise bill want a three-month extension of some existing provisions to allow more time to craft a stronger measure.
But Gonzales and Republican leaders in the House and Senate spoke against the idea of a temporary extension and vowed to push for passage of more permanent legislation.
"We have been talking about the Patriot Act for months and months," Gonzales said, adding, "and so I think the time to act is now."
Rep. Peter King (news, bio, voting record), a New York Republican who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, wouldn't even discuss the chances for a three-month extension. "Talking about it, it becomes reality," King said.
Meanwhile, a civil liberties group, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, called for postponing votes on the law's renewal until the FBI releases more documents that could show how the agency has used its broadened investigative powers.
A batch of documents made public by the group showed that the Justice Department's Office of Intelligence Policy and Review had blocked several investigations, but that the FBI might now be operating without the office's oversight.
Senate opponents acknowledge that the compromise bill was much improved over the measure passed by the House earlier this year. Key to the compromise was that Congress in four years would again review the most controversial provisions.
Nevertheless, opponents said the compromise would give law enforcement too much latitude to rummage through individuals' private documents, from medical records and books checked out of libraries, to businesses records and personal belongings from homes.
Sen. John Sununu (news, bio, voting record), a conservative Republican from New Hampshire, told reporters that any renewal of the Patriot Act "ought to provide strong, adequate protections in all levels of civil liberties."
He and Sen. Russ Feingold (news, bio, voting record), a liberal Democrat from Wisconsin, will try to block the White House-backed compromise when it reaches the Senate floor in coming days.
