Background on the final USA Act v3.0, which expands wiretapping and surveillance: http://www.politechbot.com/p-02707.html http://www.wartimeliberty.com/search.pl?topic=legislation
President Bush's statement that he looks forward to signing the bill: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/10/20011024-4.html Sen. Patrick Leahy applauds the bill, congratulating the Senate on expected approval today: http://www.senate.gov/~leahy/press/200110/102401.html ********** http://www.wartimeliberty.com/article.pl?sid=01/10/25/0423207&mode=thread The House of Representatives voted on Wednesday for a revised "USA Act" anti-terrorism bill that expands wiretapping and surveillance. You can see the 400 KB final text and the vote counts. Note that two weeks ago, the House approved the bill by a 339 by 79 vote and gave it a five-year expiration date. Then the Senate decided to get persnickety and demanded that anti-financial privacy "money laundering" sections must be added, insisted that the expiration date be shortened to four years, and so on. The doughty defenders of liberty in the House reponded by approving the rewritten, expanded bill by -- a 357 to 66 vote. Translation: Making the bill more Draconian, onerous, and nasty convinced precisely 13 more politicos to vote for the revised version. How pleasant. ********** News Advisory For immediate release Contact: Jeff Lungren October 24, 2001 202-225-2492 House Passes Anti-terrorism Legislation Sensenbenner Urges Senate Action Today WASHINGTON, D.C. - The House today passed anti-terrorism legislation by a 357-66 margin. H.R. 3162, introduced by House Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr. (R-Wis.), is expected to be considered by the Senate today or tomorrow and then sent to President Bush for his signature. "Today, the House came together in a bipartisan manner to pass landmark anti-terrorism legislation which provides federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies the tools they need to combat the scourges of international and domestic terrorism. Our country remains vulnerable to terrorism and our President needs this bill to fight the clear and present danger posed by Al Queda and other terrorist organizations," said Chairman Sensenbrenner. "I have heard that certain Senators have placed holds on this anti-terrorism bill to press their own parochial issues. This is the time to dispense with business as usual. It is time for leadership; I urge the Senate to pass this legislation today." [Does Sensenbrenner mean dispensing with "business as usual" by not holding hearings on the bill, perhaps? Or perhaps he wants to reject "parochial" issues like concerns over privacy, maybe? --Declan] ********** ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
