As Expected, Senate Passes Patriot Act Renewal

-- Library Journal, 03/08/2006

In a 89 to 10 vote, the Senate March 2 passed legislation renewing the USA PATRIOT Act, after four Republican Senators agreed to a compromise negotiated with the White House. The House of Representatives is expected to approve the compromise before the March 10 expiration of the Patriot Act extension. American Library Association (ALA) president Michael Gorman reiterated ALA's disapproval of the deal: "Although some have claimed that the compromise language includes new protections for library patrons, those alleged protections are illusory. Section 215 continues to allow the government to secretly search library patron records without proof that the person whose records are being sought has committed a crime or is in contact with a suspected terrorist.The 'compromise' language continues to attach a gag provision to Section 215 orders and does not allow Section 215 recipients to meaningfully challenge that gag order in a court of law."

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, both voted for the compromise bill but is also drafting legislation to revise the Patriot Act. "I want to put down a benchmark to get extra protections which better comport with my own sensitivity to civil rights," he said, according to the New York Times. Sen. Russell Feingold (D-WI) opposed the compromise so fervently that "he spent much of Wednesday reading the Constitution on the Senate floor," the Times said.