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Senate Democrats Slow Republicans' Push

Posted on: Thursday, 15 December 2005, 12:00 CST

By JESSE J. HOLLAND

WASHINGTON - The Republican-controlled Congress hit several speed bumps in its rush to wrap up the legislative year, with increasing Democratic-led opposition in the Senate threatening GOP priorities on anti-terrorism, deficit reduction and oil drilling in an Alaska wildlife preserve.

The House easily passed the USA Patriot Act reauthorization on Wednesday, but a bipartisan group of senators was building support for blocking final passage of the House-Senate compromise, saying the measure would give the FBI a dangerous amount of power.

"We don't have to accept bad provisions in order to make sure good provisions become law," said Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., one of the senators threatening to filibuster the Patriot Act renewal.

His threat gained ground Thursday when Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the original Democratic co-sponsor of the 2001 Patriot Act, announced that she would support a filibuster. She and others predicted the act would be extended in some form, but without agreement on key changes.

"What will be lost is the much-needed sense that the Patriot Act represents a broad consensus," Feinstein said on the Senate floor. "Having a consensus bill is of paramount importance."

Proposed drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge remained another threatened priority.

"I support opening ANWR to energy production to help increase our energy independence and protect our nation from terrorists taking our energy supplies hostage, and want to move it through the House and Senate however I can," Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said.

The passage of the oil drilling bill also would ease the way for another GOP priority, reaching an agreement on a pledge to cut spending on a five year, $45 billion deficit reduction package that has been the top budget priority of President Bush and Republican leaders for nearly a year.

House leaders reluctantly jettisoned legislation to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling earlier this fall in their drive to salvage the larger deficit-cutting measure. But now House and Senate leaders are considering attaching the ANWR legislation to a must-pass defense bill.

Any such strategy would require 60 votes in the Senate, though, and it is not clear it would succeed.

The House also:

-Voted 308-122 to back a Senate-passed ban on cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of foreign terrorism suspects as negotiations between the White House and Sen. John McCain over the provision appeared at an impasse.

McCain's provisions have stalled two defense bills in Congress, including a must-pass $453 billion wartime spending measure. Congress is under pressure to approve the defense spending bill before adjourning for the year because it includes $50 billion for the Iraq war.

-Saw one of its committees investigating the government's response to Hurricane Katrina issue a subpoena to force Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to produce internal records and communications about the Pentagon's response to the Aug. 29 storm, including efforts to send supplies to victims, stabilize public safety and mobilize active duty forces along the Gulf Coast. The chairman of the special House committee, Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., rejected legal action against the White House, but left open the possibility of a future subpoena.

Senate Republican leaders on Wednesday fought to save the USA Patriot Act renewal from sinking after the House easily passed the measure.

Frist predicted that the legislation would survive a Senate filibuster threat and pass before more than a dozen of the 2001 law's provisions expire Dec. 31. But the Senate remained deeply divided over the issue. Opponents gained ground Wednesday when they were joined by Sens. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore.

Congress overwhelmingly passed the Patriot Act after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The law expanded the government's surveillance and prosecutorial powers against suspected terrorists, their associates and financiers, prompting complaints by civil libertarians and others that it could overly intrude into the lives of innocent citizens.

Wyden said the renewal bill, a compromise measure that was worked out last week between key Republicans in the House and Senate, "strikes the wrong balance between security and civil liberties and leaves Congress with inadequate oversight."

The division was reflected in the House, where 44 Democrats joined 207 Republicans to pass the measure and send it to the Senate. Feinstein found herself in the odd position of campaigning for a provision of the bill - cracking down on methamphetamine use - without supporting the overall Patriot Act accord. She echoed opponents' concerns over civil liberties abuses and said she wouldn't announce her position until those were addressed.,

"What is very important is that this body acts with some unity on it," Feinstein told reporters.

Source: Associated Press/AP Online

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