Postponing Debate,
Congress Extends
Terror Law 5 Weeks
By SHERYL GAY
STOLBERG, NYTimes on the Web, December 23, 2005
WASHINGTON, Dec. 22 -- In a
frantic finish before adjourning for the year, Congress extended on Thursday the
broad antiterrorism bill known as the USA Patriot Act by five weeks after the
Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee balked at a longer
extension.
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Samantha Reinders for The New York Times
Representative F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., Republican of Wisconsin,
forced shorter renewal of Patriot Act. |
The deal, approved by voice vote in
sparsely attended sessions in the House and Senate, averts the expiration of the
16 major provisions of the original law on Dec. 31. It was the final twist
in a six-day game of brinksmanship between President Bush and Senate Democrats
who, joined by a handful of Republicans, had blocked a bill to make permanent
the original law.
But the deal fell far short of President Bush's aim of permanently extending the
original law, which expanded the government's investigative powers after the
attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. The extension also set the stage for a clash
over civil liberties and national security when lawmakers return here early next
year.
The action was taken after the head of the House Judiciary Committee,
Representative F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., Republican of Wisconsin, threatened
to derail a six-month extension the Senate passed on Wednesday night.
White House officials intervened on Thursday to persuade Mr. Sensenbrenner to
sign off on the five-week extension.
With most lawmakers having already left Washington for their holiday vacations,
just one senator, John W. Warner, Republican of Virginia, was on hand for the
Senate vote. He presided over a four-minute session wearing two hats,
those of senator and presiding officer.
Later, Mr. Bush, who said making the act permanent was essential to protect
against another attack, issued a statement promising to "work closely with the
House and Senate to make sure that we are not without this crucial law for even
a day."
As it wrapped up business for the year, Congress also gave final approval to a
$453.3 billion military spending bill that included $50 billion for the Iraq and
Afghanistan wars, $29 billion in new aid for hurricane victims, $3.8 billion to
prepare for a possible outbreak of avian flu and a governmentwide 1 percent
spending cut. The Republican leadership stripped out language for $2
billion in extra assistance for low-income people to pay their home heating
bills.
But extending the Patriot Act provided the real drama. Under the measure
passed on Thursday, the deadline to reauthorize the Patriot Act moved, from Dec.
31 to Feb. 3, timing that could prove a problem for the White House.
It means that a debate on the law would be in full swing at the same time the
Senate starts an inquiry into a secret spying program authorized by President
Bush and run by the National Security Agency to monitor international phone
calls and international e-mail messages of people in the United States.
Lawmakers on both sides of the issue say the measure and the spying program are
inextricably intertwined.
"I think there will be a compromise on the Patriot Act," said Senator Charles E.
Schumer, the New York Democrat who voted to block the permanent renewal in part
because of the disclosures about the spying program. "I think there will
be a consensus bill, but it will have to lean a little bit more to the civil
liberties side."
Senator Olympia J. Snowe, Republican of Maine, said: "I think there will
be a lot of questions that have to be answered with respect to the domestic
surveillance. It's all interfaced. So I think perhaps it's
appropriate that all these issues will merge."
Debate over the Patriot Act has inflamed passions among civil liberties
advocates, who argue that the law permits too much government intrusion in
personal privacy. Congress has spent months on measures to renew and
update it. Last week, the House passed a measure, with Mr. Sensenbrenner's
strong backing, to make 14 of the 16 expiring provisions permanent and to add
more safeguards to protect civil liberties.
But that bill, a product of a House-Senate conference, was bottled up in the
Senate, prompting the six-month extension that it passed on a voice vote.
Mr. Sensenbrenner, furious, promised to derail the Senate action and had the
power to do so. Under House rules, the six-month extension had to pass
unanimously, without any objections. But by early Thursday afternoon, the
White House stepped in, and Mr. Sensenbrenner relented, agreeing to five weeks.
He said he did so only because White House officials had told him that Mr. Bush
would convene a special session of Congress next week if he did not. He
was asked whether he was seeking retribution.
"It's not retribution," Mr. Sensenbrenner told reporters. "I've spent the
better part of this year holding 11 hearings on the Patriot Act."
Its future is unclear. Senator Russell D. Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin
and a leading filibuster backer, said in a statement that the conference measure
would have to change.
"That bill is dead," Mr. Feingold said, "and cannot be revived."
The Patriot Act debate was hardly the sole partisan scuffle on a day when
Congress remained in session even as lawmakers seemed desperate to adjourn for
the year. In the House, a $40 billion budget-cutting measure, also passed
by the Senate on Wednesday, ran into a roadblock when the Democratic leader,
Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, rebuffed an entreaty from Speaker J.
Dennis Hastert of Illinois to consent to its consideration.
The move forces the House to take up the budget when it comes back into session
next year.
"Every single House Democrat opposed this immoral bill because of the harmful
cuts in student loans, health care, child support enforcement and other
assistance for seniors and low- and middle-income families," Ms. Pelosi wrote in
a letter to Mr. Hastert. "In fact, many members on your side of the aisle
agreed that the draconian cuts were not justified."
In the Senate, Democrats, along with Ms. Snowe and her Maine Republican
colleague, Susan Collins, complained about the decision to strip assistance for
home heating oil from the military spending bill.
The $2 billion provision was written into a section of the bill permitting
Arctic oil exploration. When the Senate cut out the drilling language, the
heating oil provision went with it.
"It was the wrong choice for the American people in this cold holiday season,"
said the Senate Democratic leader, Harry Reid of Nevada.
By day's end, Ms. Snowe and Ms. Collins announced that they had reached an
accord with the Senate majority leader, Bill Frist of Tennessee, for the Senate
to vote in January on a bill to provide the additional money. The
negotiations were conducted from afar. When the Senate convened at 8 p.m.,
Mr. Warner sat in the chamber alone, joined just by clerks and 12 or so aides
who clapped vigorously when he brought down the gavel for the final time this
year.
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