[ACLU-NM] Patriot Act Update from Lisa Graves - Senior Legislative Counsel, ACLU

[Kimberly Lavender]

Before the Senate broke for its annual August recess, the
Specter-Feinstein bill
<http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/D?d109:6:./temp/~bdRtFW::%7C/bss/
d109query.html%7C>  to reauthorize the expiring provisions of the
Patriot Act passed. This bipartisan bill was approved through a process
called "unanimous consent," where the leaders of both parties get
consent to take action on a measure and none of the other Senators
object.

The good news is there were also no amendments to make the bill worse or
try to strip out some of the modest improvements made to the Patriot
Act. As we prepared for the summer break in the congressional session,
we were developing a strategy to make sure the Roberts bill approved by
the Senate Intelligence Committee would not be dueling on the Senate
floor with the Specter bill.

As you recall, the Senate Intelligence Committee had passed a bill to
expand the Patriot Act and did so behind closed doors. Just this past
Wednesday, the FBI was asking again for expanded powers to write its own
search orders without any court approval in advance and without
demonstrating to any court that there were any facts connecting any
personal records sought to an agent of a foreign power.

This terrible idea, called "administrative subpoena" power by the
Justice Department and called the FBI's "write-your-own-search-order" by
us, was not embraced by the three other Committees in Congress that
considered the Patriot Act (though an amendment by Congressman Flake on
the House floor takes a step backward in that direction--more on that
later).

Still, had the Specter bill not been approved by "UC," in the lingo of
the Senate, it would have been subject to potentially unlimited
amendments and debate unless there were consent by both parties to limit
these or if "cloture" had been invoked (a Senate rule allowing a super
majority to force a vote). Unlike the House, the Senate is the last
bastion of the democratic principle of freedom of debate and amendment,
where the tyranny of any majority party is not allowed to gag the
minority or limit amendments to only those approved by the party in
power--as happened in the House Rules Committee a week ago.

So, now the Senate bill which the ACLU has praised
<http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=18805&c=206>  for
being a truly bipartisan effort that take some modest steps toward
reforming the Patriot Act (but which we cannot endorse due to the
significant flaws that remain) goes to conference.

This is the process for reconciling differences between bills passed by
both houses of Congress about the same subject. We know the Senate
conferees, but not the House ones yet. They are Chairman Specter and
Chairman Roberts, as well Senators Hatch, DeWine, Kyl, Sessions, Leahy,
Rockefeller, Kennedy, and Levin (members of either or both the Judiciary
and Intelligence Committees).

The ACLU and its allies across the nation still have a lot of work ahead
of us to help ensure that in the conference committee of House and
Senate members the modest improvements are not lost and that the worse
provisions of the severely flawed House bill do not become the law.

We'll be reaching out to you in the coming weeks as we work toward a
vote in both the House and Senate on a final bill, likely in September.

Thank you again for your tremendous efforts! We still have much to do to
reform the Patriot Act so that we can be both safe and free. 
Posted on the ACLU blog by Lisa Graves, Senior Legislative Counsel, ACLU
<http://blog.reformthepatriotact.org/index.php?/authors/5-Lisa-Graves,-S
enior-Legislative-Counsel,-ACLU>  
 
Kimberly Lavender
Communications Manager
ACLU of New Mexico
PO Box 80915
Albuquerque, NM 87198
klavender at aclu-nm.org
go to our website at www.aclu-nm.org <http://www.aclu-nm.org/> 
 
 
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