Patriot Act accord reached

WASHINGTON – A band of Senate Republican holdouts – including Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho – reached agreement Thursday with the White House on changes in the Patriot Act designed to clear the way for passage of anti-terror legislation stalled in a dispute over civil liberties.

Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H., said the changes would better “protect civil liberties even as we give law enforcement important tools to conduct terrorism investigations.”

The White House embraced the deal even before Sununu and a few other senators outlined it.

Presidential spokesman Scott McClellan said the agreement would “continue to build upon the civil liberties protections that are in place but do so in a way that doesn’t compromise our national security priorities.”

The compromise focused on three areas:

Giving recipients of court-approved subpoenas for information in terrorist investigations the right to challenge a requirement that they refrain from telling anyone.

Eliminating a requirement that an individual provide the FBI with the name of a lawyer consulted about a National Security Letter, which is a demand for records issued by investigators.

Clarifying that most libraries are not subject to demands in those letters for information about suspected terrorists.

While there was no immediate reaction from House Republicans, Craig, one of the Senate negotiators, said House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., had been kept apprised of the negotiations. Craig said that with the Senate and the White House now in concert, “there will be no additional negotiations” with the House.

Reaction from Democrats was divided.

Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, second-ranking in the Democratic leadership, appeared at the GOP news conference. He said the compromise included “significant progress” toward protecting basic liberties and that he planned to support it.

Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., threatened a filibuster.

The law originally was passed within days of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the administration says it has been an important weapon in the government’s arsenal for tracking suspected terrorists.

Renewal of the law was blocked last year when critics said its provisions shortchanged civil liberties.

As a result of the deadlock, lawmakers decided to extend the old law temporarily, a short-term solution that left the administration and many in Congress unhappy. The current extension expires March 10.