Parties Failing in Joint Effort to Review Patriot Act By ERIC LICHTBLAU http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/12/politics/12patriot.html?pagewanted=print
WASHINGTON, July 11 - Efforts in Congress to reach a bipartisan compromise over the future of the USA Patriot Act appear to have splintered, with Republican leaders on the Senate and House Judiciary Committees moving ahead on their own with proposals to extend the government's counterterrorism powers under the hotly debated law. Some Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee said they thought they had reached a tentative compromise in recent weeks on a joint bill that would have extended the law while imposing tougher restrictions on the government's ability to use some surveillance powers against terror suspects. While negotiations to broker a bipartisan deal continued late Monday, Democratic officials said the compromise appeared to have stalled because of disagreement over whether to impose new restrictions on the government's ability to demand library records and other powers. Senator Arlen Specter, the Pennsylvania Republican who is chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and other Republicans on the panel are planning to introduce a proposal as early as Tuesday. No Democrats have signed on in support of the proposal, which would make permanent provisions of the law that are set to expire at the end of the year. On the House side, meanwhile, Representative F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., the Wisconsin Republican who leads the Judiciary Committee, introduced a similar proposal on Monday. Frictions on the House Judiciary Committee over the act spilled into public view a month ago at a hearing on the law that degenerated into chaos, as Mr. Sensenbrenner gaveled the session to an end prematurely and stormed out after Democrats made accusations about the administration's policies on torture. House Democratic officials said Monday that while they were actively involved in negotiations on the original passage of the Patriot Act in October 2001, they felt shut out now. "There's an incredible contrast this time around," said a senior Democratic aide on the House Judiciary Committee, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of political tensions surrounding the issue. "This time, the Republicans have told us for some time they are working on a bill, they asked for our suggestions, and they ended up saying that none of our suggestions were acceptable," the aide said. "So they're now dropping a bill that we see as a total reauthorization of the Patriot Act with only very slight tweaks." The Sensenbrenner bill and the proposal that Mr. Specter is expected to introduce this week represent largely a continuation of current powers under the act. The Judiciary Committee proposals do not contain the type of expanded counterterrorism powers that would be granted under a competing proposal already passed by the Senate Intelligence Committee, including the F.B.I.'s expanded use of terrorism subpoenas without a judge's approval and its expanded monitoring of certain mailings. And the judiciary proposals would incorporate some concessions sought by Democrats on relatively narrow points, officials said. These include provisions to ensure that people served with certain types of subpoenas can legally challenge them and that information demanded by the authorities is "relevant" to terror and intelligence investigations. But Lisa Graves, a senior counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, which is pushing for restrictions, said Monday, "We consider these really cosmetic changes that don't go to the heart of the concerns that people around the country have about the government's powers." A compromise appeared to have been reached weeks ago between Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee on a plan that would have incorporated further restrictions, but the plan was scuttled at least temporarily when Mr. Specter made plans to move ahead on his own with a bill that would largely re-authorize the existing law, Congressional officials said. Some Democrats attributed the breakdown to a Justice Department effort to expand government powers further, while Republicans said changes sought by aides to Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, the ranking Democrat on the panel, scuttled the plan. The White House has made renewal of the antiterrorism law a top priority, and President Bush pushed again for its extension in a speech Monday at the F.B.I. Academy in Quantico, Va. "The terrorist threats against us will not expire at the end of this year," he said, "and neither should the protections of the Patriot Act." You are a subscribed member of the infowarrior list. Visit www.infowarrior.org for list information or to unsubscribe. This message may be redistributed freely in its entirety. Any and all copyrights appearing in list messages are maintained by their respective owners.
