Washington Post
December 12, 2005
by Associated Press
Opponents of a compromise to renew the Patriot Act launched last-minute efforts to block it Monday, saying Congress needs time to include more protections for civil liberties. But the chief Senate negotiator said more talking won't change the deal.
"For those who want to reargue it and re-litigate it and reconsider it, it's not going to get any better," said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa.
Still, complaints rolled in from civil liberties groups and more than 10 senators of both parties as the House and Senate prepared for up-or-down votes this week on whether to renew the provisions that are set to expire Dec. 31.
A bipartisan group of senators introduced an alternative bill Monday that would extend the current law rather than renew the provisions under an agreement that they say does too little to protect Americans from government intrusion.
"The American people have every reason to expect Congress to achieve the right balance in defending their rights while advancing their security, but the Republican-backed conference report fails to do that," said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the Judiciary Committee's ranking Democrat and co-sponsor of the bill the group introduced Monday.
That bill was not expected to go any further, and it was unclear if other efforts to block or defeat a House-Senate bill to renew the expiring Patriot Act had enough votes to succeed. Still, others launched objections.
Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., was threatening to filibuster the House-Senate agreement. The American Civil Liberties Union, meanwhile, complained that compromise would give the Secret Service too much power.
Brokered by Vice President Dick Cheney and other members of the Bush administration, the agreement would renew more than a dozen expiring provisions of the terror-fighting act passed shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks. No Democrats have signed the agreement.
The accord would give law enforcement officials access to a range of personal information, including library, phone, bank and medical records, as part of terrorism investigations.
It would extend for four years the government's ability to conduct wiretaps on multiple phones for a single suspect. It also would extend for four years the power to wiretap "lone wolf" terrorists who may operate on their own, without control from a foreign agent or power.
Chief among the opponents' complaints is the use of National Security Letters the FBI can issue to obtain from banks and other third parties the records of people it suspects may be connected to terrorist activity.
The agreement includes new reporting requirements for the use of NSLs and for the first time explicitly says a recipient of such a letter may challenge it in court.
Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., said the Patriot Act should set an expiration date for the use of NSLs for terrorism cases to allow Congress to renew and improve the process.
Besides Kennedy and Leahy, other co-sponsors of the Senate bill for a three-month Patriot Act extension are: Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska; Ken Salazar, D-Colo.; Larry Craig, R-Idaho; Richard Durbin, D-Ill.; Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow, both D-Mich.; John Sununu, R-N.H., and John Rockefeller, D-W.Va.
