PATRIOT Act in Limbo Amid New Spying Flap

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PATRIOT Act in Limbo Amid New Spying Flap

by William Fisher
December 17, 2005


A bipartisan majority of senators refused to reauthorize the USA PATRIOT Act Friday, which was hurriedly passed six weeks after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and gave U.S. law enforcement agencies significant expanded powers to investigate suspected terrorists.

While in favor of most of the act's provisions, senators opposing reauthorization targeted several provisions that they said failed to protect privacy and liberty. These include some of the PATRIOT Act's most controversial provisions that will soon expire, along with the whole legislation.

The bill's Senate supporters, led by Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee and Judiciary Committee chairman Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, were unable to muster the 60 votes needed to cut off debate and overcome a threatened filibuster by Sen. Russ Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat, and Sen. Larry Craig, a Republican from Idaho. The final vote was 52-47.

The bill that was rejected was the product of a "conference committee" between the Senate and the House of Representatives that attempted to reconcile the different versions of the reauthorization produced by the two legislative bodies. If a compromise among senators is not reached, the 16 PATRIOT Act provisions will expire on Dec. 31.

Opponents of reauthorization appealed for a three-month extension to give House-Senate conferees further time to consider changes. But President George W. Bush, Majority Leader Frist, and House Speaker Dennis Hastert have said they will not accept a short-term extension of the law.

Critics of the Act were handed new ammunition for their campaign by a report in Friday's New York Times alleging that President Bush authorized the National Security Agency (NSA) – part of the Pentagon's intelligence apparatus – to monitor the international phone calls and international e-mails of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people inside the United States.

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http://www.antiwar.com/ips/fisher.php?articleid=8269

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