Congress renews Patriot Act for one month

‘We're still under threat’
“It appears to me that the Congress understands we got to keep the Patriot Act in place, that we’re still under threat,” Bush said just before boarding a helicopter headed to Camp David, Md., for a long holiday weekend with his family.

Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., who had led the Democratic filibuster against permanently renewing most of the law’s expiring provisions, said the six-month extension would “allow more time to finally agree on a bill that protects our rights and freedoms while preserving important tools for fighting terrorism.”

Most of the Patriot Act — which expanded the government’s surveillance and prosecutorial powers against suspected terrorists, their associates and financiers — was made permanent when Congress overwhelmingly passed it after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington.

Safeguards on the Patriot Act
Making permanent the rest of the Patriot Act powers, like the roving wiretaps that allow investigators to listen in on any telephone and tap any computer they think a target might use, has been a priority of the administration and Republican lawmakers.

Some civil liberties safeguards had been inserted into legislation for renewing that law but Senate Democrats and a small group of GOP senators blocked it anyway, arguing that more safeguards were needed.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said he had no choice but to accept a six-month extension in the face of a successful filibuster and the Dec. 31 expiration date. “I’m not going to let the Patriot Act die,” Frist said.

Bush had indicated that he would sign the six-month extension. “The work of Congress on the Patriot Act is not finished,” Bush said. “The act will expire next summer, but the terrorist threat to America will not expire on that schedule. I look forward to continuing to work with Congress to reauthorize the Patriot Act.”

The six-month “extension ensures that the tools provided to law enforcement in terrorist investigations in the Patriot Act remain in effect while Congress works out the few differences that remain,” said Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H., one of a small group of Republicans who crossed party lines to block the Patriot Act legislation.

Republicans who had pushed for legislation that would make most of the expiring provisions permanent said the agreement only postpones the ongoing arguments over the Patriot Act for six months. “We’ll be right back where we are right now,” said a clearly frustrated Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.

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