Senate defies Bush, blocks extension of the Patriot Act
WASHINGTON – In a strong rebuke of President Bush, Senate Democrats and a small band of renegade Republicans blocked a vote Friday to extend the Patriot Act, which broadened law enforcement powers after the Sept. 11 attacks.
With the current law set to expire Dec. 31, the Senate move sets up a game of brinkmanship with the White House, which refused to accept Democratic entreaties to extend the deadline by three months to allow time to make further changes to the law.
The vote was one in a series of recent defeats for Bush on what had been one of his strongest issues – security against terrorism. On Thursday, Bush reluctantly accepted a provision pushed by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., that would ban the use of inhumane, degrading and cruel treatment against foreign prisoners under American control.
On Friday, the House of Representatives also called on the administration to inform Congress about any secret prisons the CIA may be operating in foreign countries.
The Patriot Act stalled after Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., fell seven votes short of the 60 needed for a final vote.
Republicans threatened to use the vote politically against Democrats, portraying them as weak on national security. Democrats argued that an unchecked Bush administration was infringing on civil liberties in the name of fighting terrorism.
Supporters of the law said that if the Patriot Act wasn’t renewed, domestic law enforcement agencies, such as the FBI, and national intelligence agencies, such as the CIA, would no longer be able to share terrorism information.
“The Congress has a responsibility not to take away this vital tool that law enforcement and intelligence officials have used to protect the American people,” Bush said in a statement. “The senators who are filibustering the Patriot Act must stop their delaying tactics so that we are not without this critical law for even a single moment.”
Four Republicans joined all but two Democrats in opposing the legislation. They argued they wanted to improve the bill, not let the act expire.
“We want to mend the Patriot Act, not end it,” said Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
But in a Democratic rally after the vote, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., took a more defiant tone: “We killed the Patriot Act,” Reid declared to loud applause.
Though most lawmakers believe the pending bill generally improves the 2001 version of the Patriot Act, Democrats could be forced to accept up to a yearlong extension of the existing law while they negotiate a new version. It was unclear how Frist would proceed, but one option would be to add such an extension to a pending defense-spending bill.