February 9, 2006
Deal Could Break Deadlock in Senate on Patriot Act
By DAVID STOUT
WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 — Several Senate Republicans who have been fighting for changes in the USA Patriot Act have reached a compromise with the White House on extending the anti-terrorism law, Congressional officials said today.

Details of the accord were to be announced at a Capitol Hill news conference this afternoon.

The USA Patriot Act, passed overwhelmingly by Congress shortly after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, broadened government surveillance powers. In the ensuing months, the act has been the subject of fierce debate about whether it strikes the proper balance between national security and civil liberties.

Sixteen provisions of the act were scheduled to expire on Dec. 31, a deadline that helped to set the stage for a battle between House Republicans and Senate Democrats, joined by a few Republican senators.

The Democratic-Republican Senate alliance was big enough to block extension of the act through a filibuster, a parliamentary delaying technique that requires 60 of the 100 Senate votes to break.

In mid-December, the House passed a measure to make 14 of the expiring provisions permanent. But the remaining two provisions have been sticking points in the Senate. One gives the federal government the power to demand access to library records, and the other gives the government the authority to demand records without a judge's approval through a "national security letter," or administrative subpoena.

President Bush has been pushing hard for renewal of the act and generally favors the House version. In the weeks-long impasse between the House and Senate, both chambers have agreed to temporary extensions of the statute, once until Feb. 3 and again until March 10.

The reservations about the act in the Senate gave rise to alliances not often seen. Senators Larry Craig of Idaho, John Sununu of New Hampshire, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, all relatively conservative Republicans, joined with Democrats in voicing concerns over whether revisions to the act had done enough to safeguard civil rights.

Among their Democratic allies, at least on that issue, had been Senator Russell D. Feingold, a relatively liberal Democrat from Wisconsin who was the only senator to vote against the Patriot Act in 2001.

But Mr. Feingold said before this afternoon's news conference that he would not be part of the deal about to be announced. "The few minor changes that the White House agreed to do not address the major problems with the Patriot Act that a bipartisan coalition has been trying to fix for the past several years," he said. "I will continue to strongly oppose, and use every option at my disposal to stop, any reauthorization of the Patriot Act that does not protect the rights and freedoms of law-abiding Americans with no connection to terrorism."



Copyright 2006The New York Times

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Tentative Deal Is Reached on Patriot Act By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent
35 minutes ago



A band of Senate Republican holdouts reached agreement with the White House Thursday on minor changes in the Patriot Act, hoping to clear the way for passage of anti-terror legislation that has been stalled in a dispute over protection of civil liberties.

Sen. John Sununu (news, bio, voting record), R-N.H., and three other GOP lawmakers — all of whom joined with Democrats last year to block a long-term extension of the law — were to announce their accord with the administration in a late-afternoon news conference.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan pre-empted them, saying the changes "continue to build upon the civil liberties protections that are in place but do so in a way that doesn't compromise our national security priorities."

"We're pleased that this important legislation is moving forward," he said.

There was no immediate reaction from House Republicans, although several GOP officials said key lawmakers had been informed of the proposed changes.

One GOP official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the legislation had been rewritten to make it clear that an individual receiving a so-called National Security Letter was not required to notify the FBI if he consulted a lawyer.

This official also said a second proposed change would clarify that only libraries that are "electronic service providers" could be required to provide information to government agents as part of a terrorist investigation.

A GOP agreement would put Senate Democrats in a politically difficult position of deciding whether to renew their filibuster on an issue of national security — an area where polling shows them trailing Bush and the Republicans.

Two Democrats swiftly denounced the GOP agreement, saying it fell short of what was needed.

Sen. Russell Feingold of Wisconsin said, "The few minor changes that the White House agreed to do not address the major problems with the Patriot Act that a bipartisan coalition has been trying to fix."

Sen. Patrick Leahy (news, bio, voting record) of Vermont, the senior Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, accused the White House of "naysaying and partisanship."

Still, Leahy's statement stopped well short of joining in Feingold's threat to renew a filibuster that stopped passage of the legislation last year.

The Patriot Act was originally passed within days of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the administration says it has been an important weapon in the government's arsenal for tracking suspected terrorists.

Renewal of the law was blocked last year when critics said its provisions shortchanged civil liberties, particularly in the cases of individuals who were not suspected of terrorist activities themselves, but might have had innocent dealings with suspects.

Also at issue was concern over the government's ability to demand information from libraries.

As a result of the deadlock, lawmakers decided to extend the old law temporarily, a short-term solution that left the administration and many in Congress unhappy.

The current extension expires March 10.

Republicans said that with the changes, the chance would be remote that any library would have to turn over information.

But Democrats said the same provision made explicit that some libraries could be forced to turn over information, adding that existing law is vague on the subject.

Other than Sununu, the Republicans who had defied the president's wishes on the Patriot Act last December were Sens. Larry Craig of Idaho, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska.

The changes were worked out over several weeks in discussions that involved the lawmakers and White House Counsel Harriet Miers, according to one Republican familiar with the compromise efforts.

Officials who discussed the issue did so on condition of anonymity, saying they did not want to pre-empt a formal announcement.

On Dec. 16, the Senate voted 52-47 to move to a final vote on the legislation, which deals specifically with 16 provisions in the act that Congress wanted reviewed and renewed by the end of last year. That was eight votes short of the 60 needed to end the filibuster.



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