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Senate Approves Patriot Act, Passage Gives Bush Needed Victory During Period of Low Ratings

Posted on: Saturday, 4 March 2006, 00:00 CST

By LAURIE KELLMAN

WASHINGTON - The Senate's passage of the USA Patriot Act hands President Bush a victory in his troubled second term and allows the Republicans to polish their tough-on-terror image for the midterm elections.

The 89-10 vote on Thursday was months overdue and came only after a Democrat-led filibuster that attracted GOP support forced Bush to accept modest curbs on the government's power to investigate suspects in terror probes.

Still, Bush savored the moment at a time when his approval ratings have suffered over the war in Iraq and his administration's handling of Hurricane Katrina. The House was expected to approve the two-bill package next week and send it to the president, who would sign it before 16 provisions expire March 10.

Bush applauded the Senate for overcoming "partisan attempts to block its passage."

"I am very pleased and relieved," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., a possible presidential candidate, who had been unable to break the deadlock for more than two months.

Critics of the act held their ground. Sen. Russell Feingold, D- Wis., insisted that the new civil liberties protections were cosmetic.

"Americans want to defeat terrorism and they want the basic character of this country to survive and prosper," Feingold said. "They want both security and liberty, and unless we give them both - and we can if we try - we have failed."

Some lawmakers who voted for the package acknowledged deep reservations about the power it would grant to any president.

When The New York Times revealed in December that Bush had authorized a secret domestic wiretapping program, Democrats gained ammunition for their charge that the administration had run amok in its zeal to root out terrorists. With the help of some Republicans, they blocked a vote on whether to renew the law before 16 provisions expired on Dec. 31.

GOP leaders were unable to break the gridlock, so Congress opted instead to extend the deadline twice while negotiations continued. In the end, the White House and the Republicans broke the stalemate by crafting a second measure that would curb some powers of law enforcement officials seeking information.

This second bill - in effect an amendment to the measure renewing the 16 provisions - would add new protections to the 2001 antiterror law.

They include giving recipients of court-approved subpoenas in terrorist investigations the right to challenge a gag order. The change also would eliminate a requirement that an individual provide the FBI with the name of a lawyer consulted about a National Security Letter, which is a demand for records issued by investigators.

Feingold's chief ally, Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., said the package was not enough to check what he described as a presidential tendency through history of "always grabbing more power."

"The erosion of freedom rarely comes as an all-out frontal assault," warned Byrd, the dean of the Senate.

"Rather, it is a gradual, noxious creeping cloaked in secrecy and glossed over by reassurances of greater security."

Source: Charleston Daily Mail

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