Bush condemns filibuster on Patriot Act

[Fluffybunny]

As much as I want to support our country in finding terrorist, I think that the Patriot Act went too far over the line. Seeing that the unhappiness with the act is bi-partisan, I don't think that I am too off base in that impression.

Regardless of what is going on in the world, I do not think that changing the rights of Americans is something that should be taken so lightly. It took a great deal of time to get those freedoms, I do not want to give them up, let alone give them up in such a hasty manner.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush urged Congress on Wednesday to renew expiring provisions of the Patriot Act, telling reporters, "The terrorist threat is not going to expire at the end of this year."

Bush called a Senate filibuster "inexcusable."

"The senators obstructing the Patriot Act need to understand that the expiration of this vital law will endanger America and will leave us in a weaker position in the fight against brutal killers," Bush said.

At a separate media event, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said, "If the impasse continues, when Americans wake up on January 1, we will not be as safe."

Bush has said he would veto a three-month extension, arguing it would be inadequate.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said the extension would allow common sense to re-enter the debate over the act. The Vermont Democrat told reporters 52 senators -- including eight Republicans -- had signed a letter to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist calling for an extension.

On Friday, the Senate rejected a similar proposal.

Sen. John Sununu, who co-sponsored the measure with Leahy, said there are "a number of different ways that we could work through this issue."

Sununu, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, said the extension would give ample time for senators to work out differences on the sticking points of the debate.

The Senate needs 60 votes to override a filibuster and end debate, which is called "invoking cloture." Cloture would have brought the Patriot Act to a final vote, allowing the Senate to renew it by a simple majority.

But only 52 senators voted Friday to cut off debate; 47 voted against cloture.

Republicans who voted against cloture included Sens. Chuck Hagel, John Sununu, Lisa Murkowski and Larry Craig.

Without an extension or a renewal vote, 16 provisions of the Patriot Act would expire December 31.

The Bush administration has lobbied intensely for making key elements of the provisions permanent, as well as making some changes to the existing law. Top officials, including Gonzales, have called lawmakers in hopes of swaying them to the administration's position. (Read what Bush has to say)

The act, created after the September 11, 2001 attacks, allows the government broad authority to investigate people suspected of involvement in terrorist activities. Controversial measures include those allowing the FBI -- with a court order -- to obtain secret warrants for business, library, medical, and other records, and to get a wiretap on every phone a suspect uses.

Frist is among the staunchest supporters of reauthorizing the provisions and has argued that voting against immediate reauthorization "amounts to defeat and retreat at home."

But because of the complexity of Senate rules, Frist voted against cloture. The vote allows him to try to bring the act up for another vote.

Last week, the House of Representatives voted 251-174 to renew the 16 provisions, after striking a compromise that altered some of them. The Senate remains stuck over the changes to the act, but Sununu said he thinks Congress will reach an agreement.

"I do think there are changes that can be made, acceptable to both the House and Senate, that will enable us to get strong, bipartisan majorities in both chambers," he said.

Link

[gollo]

What is hard to understand is that after a terrorist attack, our leaders say things like "We shouldn't change, or the terrorists will have won" and then they proceed to make BIG changes which limit freedoms.

[pallidin]

It seems to me that, in order for "terrorists" to operate, they must have a certain degree of secrecy and freedom.

[__Kratos__]

Senate gives Patriot Act six more months

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Senators voted late Wednesday night to extend some expiring and controversial provisions of the Patriot Act for six months after leaders announced minutes earlier that they had reached a bipartisan agreement.

Approval in the Senate, many of whose members said they wanted an extension so the act could be retooled, leaves House approval as the final hurdle to keep the Patriot Act intact for now.

It was not clear when the House of Representatives would act. Though most members have left Washington for holiday break, the House has not yet formally adjourned, and the remaining members could convene to approve the bill if leaders in both parties agree.

Last week, the House voted 251-174 to renew the 16 provisions after striking a compromise that altered some of them. The provisions were set to expire at year's end if not renewed.

The House approved a bill that would have extended most of them permanently, but a filibuster after the bill reached the Senate stopped the measure from moving forward.

Republican leaders tried to break the filibuster Friday, but could muster only 52 of the necessary 60 votes. Four Republicans crossed party lines to oppose the extension.

That vote came on the same day that The New York Times reported that President Bush authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on U.S. citizens without warrants.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York, cited the newspaper report as the reason he opposed permanently renewing the Patriot Act provisions, and Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pennsylvania, called the newspaper's revelation "devastating" to the renewal effort.

Earlier Wednesday, Bush dubbed the filibuster "inexcusable" and urged Congress to renew expiring provisions of the act.

"The terrorist threat is not going to expire at the end of this year," Bush said. "The senators obstructing the Patriot Act need to understand that the expiration of this vital law will endanger America and will leave us in a weaker position in the fight against brutal killers."

Bush, who lobbied intensely for making key elements of the act permanent, originally said he would veto a three-month extension, arguing it would be inadequate.

But he appeared to prefer the idea of continuing it for six months, as a senior administration official said after Wednesday's agreement that the White House was "pleased that existing law remains in place." (Read what Bush has to say)

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tennessee, announced the agreement from the Senate floor after days of behind-the-scenes wrangling that ended the Senate impasse over the act.

Frist had been one of the most outspoken supporters of re-authorizing the provisions, arguing that a vote against immediate reauthorization "amounts to defeat and retreat at home."

In announcing Wednesday's agreement, however, Frist said that the agreement to extend the act was evidence "that there is broad bipartisan support that the Patriot Act never should expire."

"This is a win for America's safety and security, and I'm pleased the Senate was able to rise above the partisan politics being played by the minority to do the right thing," he said in a statement. "We should build on this effort to strengthen these anti-terrorism tools, safeguard our civil liberties and permanently extend the remaining provisions."

The Wednesday agreement marks a tidal shift among GOP leaders who have fervently resisted Democratic offers to temporarily extend the act so it could be revisited.

At least one Democrat applauded the new Republican sentiment.

In a statement calling the extension a "victory for the American people" because it strikes a balance between security and privacy concerns, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said Congress now has time to "get the Patriot Act right."

"I'm glad the president and Republican leaders have agreed with Democrats that we needed an extension," he said. "There's a right way and a wrong way to mend the Patriot Act. The wrong way is to force senators to cast their votes on legislation written in the middle of the night. The right way is the agreement we have tonight."

Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, has said the extension would enable common sense to re-enter the debate over the act. Before the Wednesday announcement, Leahy told reporters that 52 senators -- including eight Republicans -- had signed a letter to Frist calling for an extension.

Sen. John Sununu, R-New Hampshire, who co-sponsored the measure with Leahy, said there are "a number of different ways that we could work through this issue." He added that an extension would give senators time to work out their differences on the act.

"I do think there are changes that can be made, acceptable to both the House and Senate, that will enable us to get strong, bipartisan majorities in both chambers," he said.

The Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act, created after the September 11, 2001 attacks, allows the government broad authority to investigate people suspected of involvement in terrorist activities.

Controversial measures include those allowing the FBI -- with a court order -- to obtain secret warrants for business, library, medical and other records, and to get a wiretap on every phone a suspect uses.

Source

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Dang it.

[Celumnaz]

How was this filibuster? Who was doing the filibustering? I'm wondering if senators know what a real filibuster is anymore.

Patriot act is too sweeping and needs to be redone in total, voted on individual parts. As a whole it's a horrible document, but I can see how some parts are needed. But "The Patriot Act" as a whole needs to be CRUSHED!

[I am me]

War just gives the government more and more ability to restrict our freedoms and strengthen their powers. This Patriot Act has to go along with all of the other restrictions on our freedoms that have been placed slowly over time.

[__Kratos__]

Guess there was a change today...

House extends anti-terror act to February 3

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House of Representatives on Thursday agreed to extend until February 3 key provisions of the anti-terrorism USA Patriot Act that had been set to expire at the end of the month, allowing time for lawmakers to consider civil liberties protections.

The Senate was expected to agree to a short extension of existing law Thursday night, even though it had approved a six- month extension on Wednesday.

The shorter timetable was sought by House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, a Wisconsin Republican, who is pushing for the Senate to accept a White House-backed compromise to make the law permanent. Sensenbrenner said he wanted to keep lawmakers to a tight deadline.

A senior administration official said President George W. Bush would sign a one-month extension of the act even though he had objected to any temporary extension of current law and wanted Congress to accept the compromise.

Senate Democrats, joined by a handful of Republicans, blocked that compromise arguing more time was needed to ensure a balance between national security and the civil liberties of Americans. The battle over the Patriot got caught up in recent disclosures that Bush authorized spying on Americans with suspected ties to terrorists without seeking a court order.

Sensenbrenner defended the compromise, which passed the House, saying it contained more protections than the current law that is being extended.

"The Senate is going to have to make a decision," Sensenbrenner said at a news conference. "They can either accept the conference report, which has over 30 additional civil liberties safeguards that are not in the current Patriot Act or they can vote for extensions of the current Patriot Act that do not contain the civil liberties safeguards."

CIVIL LIBERTIES CONCERNS

House Democrats went along with the short extension, even though House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said she would have preferred more than one month to refine civil liberties protections.

"The portion of the law in dispute is the very controversial section that affects the basic civil liberties of the of the American people," she said.

Senate Democrats said the timetable was unimportant.

"The amount of time is less important than the good faith effort that will be needed in improving the Patriot Act to strike the right balance in respecting Americans' liberty and privacy, while protecting their security," said Sen. Patrick Leahy (news, bio, voting record) of Vermont, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Initially passed after the September 11 attacks, the Patriot Act expanded the authority of the federal government to conduct secret searches, obtain private records, intercept telephone calls and take other actions in the effort to track down suspected terrorists.

Among the civil liberties being debated in Congress are rules for "roving" wiretaps of suspects who use multiple telephones and court orders for records for businesses, libraries, bookstores and even personal medical records.

Source

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They should just can it now.

[kjmk]

....This Patriot Act has to go along with all of the other restrictions on our freedoms...

AMEN TO THAT!