MSNBC
December 21, 2005
by Associated Press

Senators on Wednesday agreed to extend the expiring provisions of the USA Patriot Act for six months to allow the bill's critics to continue to seek additional civil liberty safeguards in the anti-terrorism law.

The deal, if passed by the GOP-controlled Senate, would still need to get the approval of the Republican-controlled House and President Bush, but it would keep the Patriot Act provisions from expiring on Dec. 31.

Republican and Democratic senators had been negotiating all day long to try and break an impasse over the anti-terrorism law passed after the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington. It is one of the last pieces of legislation still outstanding in the Senate, which is trying to wrap up its legislative year.

A House-Senate compromise extending 16 expiring provisions of the Patriot Act had been stuck in the Senate for the past week because of a Democratic-led filibuster. Opponents of that bill say they want more safeguards in the legislation, and have asked for more time to seek more civil liberty protections in the law.