Senate Approves Patriot Act Renewal with cosmetic safeguards

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Thu, 02 Mar 2006 17:51:34 -0800

[Zepps_News] Senate Approves Patriot Act Renewal with

" cosmetic " safeguards

 

 

 

*Senate Approves Patriot Act Renewal*

 

 

*Friday March 3, 2006 1:16 AM*

 

*AP Photo DCMC107*

 

*By LAURIE KELLMAN*

 

*Associated Press Writer*

 

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate on Thursday gave its blessing to the

renewal of the USA Patriot Act after adding new privacy protections

designed to strike a better balance between civil liberties and the

government's power to root out terrorists.

 

The 89-10 vote marked a bright spot in President Bush's troubled second

term as his approval ratings dipped over the war in Iraq and his

administration's response to Hurricane Katrina. Renewing the act, Bush

and congressional Republicans said, was key to preventing more terror

attacks in the United States.

 

Bush applauded the Senate for overcoming ``partisan attempts to block

its passage.'' The House was expected to approve the two-bill package

next week and send it to the president, who would sign it before 16

provisions expire March 10.

 

``This bill will allow our law enforcement officials to continue to use

the same tools against terrorists that are already used against drug

dealers and other criminals, while safeguarding the civil liberties of

the American people,'' Bush said in a statement from India.

 

Critics held their ground. A December filibuster led by Sen. Russell

Feingold, D-Wis., and joined by several libertarian-leaning Republicans,

forced the Bush administration to agree to modest new curbs on the

government's power to probe library, bank and other records.

 

Feingold insisted those new protections are cosmetic.

 

``Americans want to defeat terrorism and they want the basic character

of this country to survive and prosper,'' he said. ``They want both

security and liberty, and unless we give them both - and we can if we

try - we have failed.''

 

Some lawmakers who voted for the package acknowledged deep reservations

about the power it would grant to any president.

 

``Our support for the Patriot Act does not mean a blank check for the

president,'' said Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada, who voted to

pass the bill package. ``What we tried to do on a bipartisan basis is

have a better bill. It has been improved.''

 

Not enough even for the bill's chief sponsor in the Senate, Judiciary

Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa. After prolonged negotiations

produced a House-Senate compromise, Specter urged his colleagues to pass

it even as he promised to introduce a new measure and hold hearings on

how to fix it.

 

For now, Bush and his Republican allies savored a significant victory.

For months, their tough-on-terror image has been tarnished by the

revelation that the president authorized a secret domestic wiretapping

program. The report in December gave Democrats ammunition for their

charge that the Bush administration had run amok in its zeal to root out

terrorists.

 

With the help of some Republicans, they blocked a vote on whether to

renew the law before 16 provisions expired on Dec. 31.

 

GOP leaders were unable to break the gridlock, so Congress opted instead

to extend the deadline twice while negotiations continued. In the end,

the White House and the Republicans broke the stalemate by crafting a

second measure that would curb some powers of law enforcement officials

seeking information. Both will be sent as a package to Bush.

 

This second bill - in effect an amendment to the measure renewing the 16

provisions - would add new protections to the 2001 antiterror law in

three areas. It would:

 

- Give recipients of court-approved subpoenas for information in

terrorist investigations the right to challenge a requirement that they

refrain from telling anyone.

 

- Eliminate a requirement that an individual provide the FBI with the

name of a lawyer consulted about a National Security Letter, which is a

demand for records issued by investigators.

 

- Clarify that most libraries are not subject to demands in those

letters for information about suspected terrorists.

 

Passed in the weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the

original Patriot Act expanded the government's surveillance and

prosecutorial powers against suspected terrorists, their associates and

financiers.

 

The renewal package would make 14 of 16 temporary provisions permanent

and set four-year expirations on the others.

 

The renewal includes several measures not directly related to terrorism.

One would make it harder for illicit labs to obtain ingredients for

methamphetamine by requiring pharmacies to sell nonprescription cold

medicines only from behind the counter.

 

Another focuses on port security, imposing new criminal sanctions and a

death sentence in certain circumstances for placing a device or

substance in U.S. waters that could damage vessels or cargo.

 

Feingold's chief ally, Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., said the package

was not enough to check what he described as a presidential tendency

through history of ``always grabbing more power.''

 

``The erosion of freedom rarely comes as an all-out frontal assault,''

warned Byrd, the dean of the Senate. ``Rather, it is a gradual, noxious

creeping cloaked in secrecy and glossed over by reassurances of greater

security.''

 

The ``no'' votes came from Jim Jeffords, I-Vt., and Feingold, Byrd and

seven other Senate Democrats: Daniel Akaka of Hawaii, Jeff Bingaman of

New Mexico, Tom Harkin of Iowa, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Carl Levin of

Michigan, Patty Murray of Washington and Ron Wyden of Oregon.

 

Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, did not vote.