The Pioneer Press
December 14, 2005
by Knight Ridder

Bipartisan anxiety in the Senate over civil liberties protections could derail an extension of the Patriot Act, the post-Sept. 11 law that expanded the government's power to investigate terrorist activities.

The act is set to expire in less than three weeks. It's prized by the Bush administration, but this week, three Senate Republicans have joined Democrats in threatening to block the bill extending it with a filibuster. That would require 60 senators to bring the issue to a vote, and the Senate is composed of 55 Republicans, 44 Democrats and one independent who usually votes with the Democrats.

``If it doesn't protect civil liberties, we should modify it,'' said Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H. ``We should make sure that the protections are there so that no matter who holds the reins of power in the executive or the legislative or the judicial branches of government, those freedoms continue to be protected.''

Sununu is a fiscal conservative who generally votes with President Bush and his party leadership, but he's a small-government libertarian on questions of privacy. That gives him common ground with liberals.

Joining Sununu in the filibuster threat are Republicans Larry Craig of Idaho and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

At issue are 16 expiring provisions of the Patriot Act that give the federal government more power to conduct searches and seizures, as well as wiretaps and surveillance of e-mail and other Internet communications. Under a new agreement struck by Senate and House negotiators last week, 14 of the 16 provisions would become permanent law.

The remaining two would be extended four years. One provision -- among the most controversial -- would allow law enforcement authorities to obtain business records and other documents, including bookstore and library records. The other would permit ``roving'' wiretaps on phones and computers that track a suspect's communications without being limited to a single phone.

Advocates of the House-Senate agreement say the new legislation provides more protections than the law Congress passed in 2001.

Senate Judiciary Committee chair Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said new provisions would require law enforcement officials to show that there are ``reasonable grounds'' before obtaining business and library records.

Sununu and Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, want Congress to approve a three-month extension of the current law to buy time for further work on it.

The chair of the House Judiciary Committee, James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., rejected that idea and warned that if the Senate fails to pass the new bill, the main result will be to render the FBI and CIA unable to share intelligence.