House Approves One Month Extension of PATRIOT Act, Approves 453 billion defense spending bill December 22, 2005 National Immigrant Solidarity Network, Peace No War Network Alerts! URL: _http://www.ImmigrantSolidarity.org_ (http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/) _http://www.PeaceNoWar.net_ (http://www.peacenowar.net/) At the last days of the House and Senate before Christmas vacation, the House balked at a Senate plan to extend the USA Patriot Act by six months to give Congress and President Bush more time to work out their differences, instead forcing the Senate and the administration to accept a one-month extension. At the same time, the House approved a $460 billion defense bill that was shorn of a provision promoted by Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) that would have opened Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. But it put off until next year final agreement on a major budget measure that would trim federal spending by nearly $40 billion over five years. Read the full stories... 1) Patriot Act Extension Is Reduced To a Month House Action Overcomes Senate's Longer Reprieve By Jonathan Weisman Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, December 23, 2005; A01 _http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/22/AR20051222020 16.html_ (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/22/AR2005122202016.html) The House balked yesterday at a Senate plan to extend the USA Patriot Act by six months to give Congress and President Bush more time to work out their differences, instead forcing the Senate and the administration to accept a one-month extension. At the same time, the House approved a $460 billion defense bill that was shorn of a provision promoted by Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) that would have opened Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. But it put off until next year final agreement on a major budget measure that would trim federal spending by nearly $40 billion over five years. Congress finished a year in which it rebuffed Bush on many of his top priorities and showed a new willingness to assert its prerogatives after four years during which the president largely dictated the terms and sought to expand executive power at the expense of the legislative branch. It was also a year marked by bitter infighting in a Republican caucus that had been known for exceptional discipline. Bush and GOP leaders were buffeted by unforeseen events, most of all Hurricane Katrina, that continued to consume lawmakers even as they tried to depart for the year. One of the most contentious disputes was over whether to reauthorize the USA Patriot Act, and it appeared as if the Senate had finessed an impasse with the White House by agreeing Wednesday night to extend the existing domestic surveillance law -- set to expire on Dec. 31 -- by six months. But House Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.) refused to go along with the agreement yesterday. He demanded that the House pass an extension only through Feb. 3, forcing a few senators to return to the Capitol last night to give the Senate's consent. "The fact is that a six-month extension, in my opinion, would have simply allowed the Senate to duck the issue until the last week in June," said Sensenbrenner, who had largely prevailed in negotiations with the Senate on a new version of the anti-terrorism law, only to see the compromise blocked by a Senate filibuster. "Now they came pretty close to wrecking everybody's Christmas. I didn't want to put the entire Congress in the position of them wrecking everybody's Independence Day." The Patriot Act was passed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to strengthen the government's hand in combating terrorism. The administration sought to toughen some of the provisions and prevent 16 from expiring. Critics charged that the proposed renewal was too slanted in the government's favor regarding national security letters and special subpoenas that give the FBI significant leeway in obtaining records, among other concerns. The House action was a setback for Bush, who had repeatedly said he would not accept a "short-term extension." Wednesday night's Senate action, which increased the proposed extension from three months to six, was seen in part as a way for Bush and his allies to save face while accepting the collapse of a four-year renewal of the law; they had supported its renewal and the House had passed it on Dec. 14. Yesterday's House vote not only erased the face-saving measure, but it also forced Bush to accept the shortest extension that lawmakers had seriously considered. Democratic lawmakers quickly hailed the House vote as a victory. Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) said: "Democrats are happy with a one-month extension of the Patriot Act. We always said that we would accept a short-term extension to give negotiators time to get the final bill right." Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (Vt.) said: "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." Eric Ueland, chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), explained why Frist wanted a longer-term extension of the existing law. "For these investigations," he said, "a six-month extension allows the intelligence community and the Department of Justice to manage investigations without having to manage against the countdown clock." Despite the confused and discordant conclusion to this year's session of Congress, acting House Majority Leader Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) struck a positive note, rattling off the House's accomplishments. The House passed and sent to Bush yesterday a $460 billion defense spending bill that includes $50 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, $29 billion in new hurricane aid, $3.8 billion for bird flu preparedness and a 1 percent, government-wide spending cut, which excludes veterans programs. Congress also completed work this week on a defense policy bill that asserts congressional will in matters of war almost for the first time since the Sept. 11 attacks. The measure would ban cruel and degrading interrogation methods and would limit the legal rights of detainees in military facilities. Other achievements cited by Blunt include revising the nation's bankruptcy laws; approving the largest highway and public works bill in history; passing an energy bill that had been sought by Bush for four years; approving the Central American Free Trade Agreement; winning House passage of a budget measure that would slow spending on entitlement programs such as Medicaid; and approving new, get-tough legislation on illegal immigration. "When you look at what we set out for ourselves at the first of the year, even with Katrina and everything that had to be added after August, it's hard not to say the House finished the year hitting all of our objectives," Blunt said. But congressional experts and former Republican lawmakers say that, despite those accomplishments, the year will be remembered more for the indictment of former House majority leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) in September and the ensuing leadership discord, the growing stain of embattled Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff, and the chaotic conclusion that kept Congress in active legislative session longer than in any year since 1987. In the final weeks of the legislative session, Republican leaders had to deal with conservatives rebelling over hurricane aid spending, GOP moderates balking at oil drilling and cuts to anti-poverty programs, and civil libertarians from both parties objecting to key provisions of the Patriot Act compromise. "If you look at the whole, they didn't have a bad year," said former representative Vin Weber (R-Minn.), who remains influential with congressional Republicans. "But, unfortunately, what matters politically is not the whole, but the end. And the end didn't end very well." Some Republican political strategists were sanguine yesterday about the coming year, when midterm elections will loom large but fortunes may improve, especially in Iraq. Former representative Bill Paxon (R-N.Y.), an influential political tactician, said the president's approval ratings are rising and voter perceptions of the economy are steadily improving. Others are not so positive. Former DeLay aide Michael Scanlon has already agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors looking into Abramoff's relationships with members of Congress. Now Abramoff himself is nearing a plea agreement that could turn him against at least a dozen lawmakers and congressional aides. Weber said House leaders should view the investigation with "paramount seriousness." "It's the cumulative effect of all of this, whether it is scandal, or failure to get an agenda enacted or questions in the paper every day about unauthorized wiretaps and the failure of Congress to get involved," fretted another former Republican congressman, Mickey Edwards (Okla.). "It's all adding up to a pretty serious situation." Staff writer Charles Babington contributed to this report. Recent U.S. House passage of the racist anti-immigrant bill 12/22: _Senate Passes Patriot Act Extension _ (http://actionla.org/features/view.php?id=347) 12/17: _Analysis - Sensenbrenner/King Bill Passes House_ (http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/cgi-bin/datacgi/database.cgi?file=Issues&report=SingleArticle&; ArticleID=0365) 12/15: _America's real enemies_ (http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/cgi-bin/datacgi/database.cgi?file=Issues&report=SingleArticle&ArticleID=0364) 12/16: _House OKs Bill to Tighten Immigration Laws_ (http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/cgi-bin/datacgi/database.cgi?file=Issues&report=SingleArticle&Artic leID=0363) 12/15: _Sensenbrenner Bill Boosts Immigration System's Worst: Indefinite Detentions_ (http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/cgi-bin/datacgi/database.cgi?file=Issues&report=SingleArticle&ArticleID=0362) ===================================================== 2) House passes 453 billion defense spending bill $50 billion for wars, $29 billion for Katrina relief included in legislation MSNBC News Services Dec. 22, 2005 _http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10574911/_ (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10574911/) WASHINGTON - The House cleared the way Thursday for a $453 billion defense spending bill that funnels $29 billion in hurricane aid to the Gulf Coast and $50 billion more for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The action came on the heels of a move to give one month more life to the Bush administration’s anti-terrorism powers under the Patriot Act. The $50 billion for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars is to carry the Pentagon until Congress acts on another emergency war supplemental next year, which lawmakers expect to be from $80 billion to $100 billion. It is estimated that the Pentagon is spending about $6 billion a month on the Iraq war effort. House passage of the defense spending bill also brings to a close debates that raged all autumn over funding for rebuilding from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, and avian flu prevention. The military spending bill contains $29 billion to rebuild levees, schools, roads and other infrastructure destroyed in August when Hurricane Katrina swept through Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Much of the money is being taken from emergency hurricane aid already enacted but not yet spent by the federal government. The rest of the funding is being offset by other accounting maneuvers. Bill includes funds for possible pandemic The defense spending bill also contains nearly $3.8 billion to begin preparations for a possible avian flu pandemic. The Bush administration had sought more than $7 billion for stockpiling drugs and other steps in case the deadly animal illness mutates in a way that makes it easily transmissible to humans. The money would also be used to increase international surveillance of the disease and to help state and local authorities in the United States prepare. The House passed the defense bill and the Patriot Act legislation in a year-end scramble to finish its work, complicated by standoffs with Democrats and disagreements among Republicans. The Patriot Act extension keeps the anti-terrorism laws in place until Feb. 3. The Senate was scheduled to reconvene to consider the legislation so it can become law. The House put the act on its short leash after House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., objected to a longer, six-month extension. Patriot Act was set to expire Dec. 31 President Bush and Republican leaders had insisted the law be permanently extended before its scheduled expiration on Dec. 31. They were stymied by a Senate filibuster, led by critics who claimed the legislation failed to protect the civil liberties of innocent Americans. Under a deadline laid down by the Senate, the House had to address the defense spending bill, including Gulf Coast aid, before the end of the day. It will not be the Christmas present that President Bush wished for after Republicans earlier lost a quarter-century campaign to open the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. That drilling authority was stripped out of the bill. The change also eliminated at least $2 billion in emergency aid for low-income families facing high heating bills this winter. Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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