Patriot Act Extended by Congress (updated with title change)

By Andrew Cochran

The U.S. House approved an extension of the current USA Patriot Act only through February 3, 2006, not to July, as the U.S. Senate approved yesterday. The Senate approved the one-month extension tonight, and President Bush will sign it. Here is the statement issued by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Sensenbrenner tonight upon passage by the House:

"Eight days ago, a bipartisan majority of the House, including 44 Democrats, voted for the PATRIOT Act conference report. Last night, the Senate ignored the will of the bipartisan majority of the House, a majority of the PATRIOT Act House-Senate conferees, and a clear majority of Senators by failing to consider the PATRIOT Act conference report. Instead, the Senate chose to punt the issue to next year by passing a six-month extension of the PATRIOT Act that contains none of the important civil liberties safeguards carefully negotiated by House and Senate conferees and included in the PATRIOT Act conference report.

"A key reason given for agreeing to last night's Senate deal was that Senators needed more time to fully debate the conference report. Today, the House addressed this concern by passing an extension of the PATRIOT Act until February 3, 2006. I'm pleased today's House passage and the Senate's expected passage later today of this five-week extension will give the Senate enough time to fully debate and consider the conference report.

"I will take Democratic Senators at their word that they do not want the PATRIOT Act to expire, Senator Reid's boast of 'killing the PATRIOT Act,' notwithstanding. I also hope Democratic Senators will evaluate this vital national security issue on its merits, and not view it as a Washington power struggle, as evidenced by Senator Feingold's comment yesterday, 'They lost the game of chicken.' The security of the American people must not be held hostage to the partisan brinksmanship of a minority of obstructionist Senators. It is imperative that the House-passed PATRIOT Act conference report be considered and passed by the Senate in a timely manner to ensure that our Nation's law enforcement and intelligence communities are provided the tools necessary to detect and defeat terrorist threats."

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