Move to weaken Patriot Act fails

A White House threat to veto the Justice Department spending bill if it was changed to weaken the USA Patriot Act was enough to convince House Republicans yesterday to protect the law.

Republicans prolonged a vote on an amendment to the Commerce-State-Justice Appropriations bill that would have limited the Justice Department’s authority to secretly read and keep records on a person’s library activities for 40 minutes until they got the votes they needed to kill it. The allotted time for the vote was 15 minutes.

Reps. Bernard Sanders, Vermont independent, and C.L. “Butch” Otter, Idaho Republican, introduced the amendment, calling that section of the act a violation of the Constitution.

“What I do not respect here is that when we are having a basic debate about the rights of American citizens and a vote, that the Republican leadership would rig the game,” Mr. Sanders said.

Democrats in unison screamed, “Shame, shame, shame” on the floor, angered to see their 219-200 majority on the issue slip to a 210-210 tie.

“A vote was called, and the majority of the House voted to support the amendments by Mr. Otter and Mr. Sanders, and then it continued and continued and continued,” said Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer, Maryland Democrat.

The vote was “deja-vu,” Mr. Hoyer said, referring to a similar tactic used last year to pass the Medicare prescription-drug bill. Republicans held that vote open for three hours until they got the necessary votes to pass the measure. He called for a second vote, which failed 194-223.

The Justice spending bill went on to pass by a vote of 397-18, and heads to the Senate.

In a statement of policy issued yesterday, the Bush administration said it would veto any effort to curb its use of the Patriot Act.

“If any other amendment that would weaken the USA Patriot Act were adopted and presented to the president for his signature, the president’s senior advisers would recommend a veto,” the statement said. President Bush has yet to veto a bill since taking office.

Civil libertarian Democrats and Republicans attempted to amend the Patriot Act to curtail the Justice Department and FBI from “sneak and peek” searches using secret court orders. Under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, federal authorities can obtain and keep library, book and video store records without a person’s knowledge.

Similar amendments to the same spending bill passed the House last year, but were stripped by the Senate to avoid a veto. Republican lawmakers decided to block such measures again this year to avoid fights in conference hearings with the Senate.

Mr. Otter introduced an amendment last year that forced the Justice Department to notify within seven days suspects whose homes or offices were secretly searched, unless the department was given a temporary extension by a federal judge. No notification is necessary currently. He introduced a similar amendment this year, but withdrew it.

“I had 309 votes for this amendment and the Otter Amendment last year. This is the ninth amendment we have had a veto threat on,” Mr. Otter said.

Republicans denounced the Sanders amendment, labeling it an affront to anti-terrorism efforts that would lead to another September 11.

Frank R. Wolf, Virginia Republican and chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee on commerce, justice, state and judiciary, said the measure was ridiculous considering recent information submitted to Congress by Attorney General John Ashcroft.

“The Justice Department, in a letter to us, said a member of a terrorist group closely affiliated with al Qaeda had recently used the Internet services provided by a public library,” he said.

Mr. Wolf added that without thorough hearings with constitutional law scholars, librarians or justice officials, “this is really not something that should be handled on the floor of the House in the heat of the moment.”

Mr. Sanders said, “It is not accurate for the other side to say that ’In my amendment the FBI cannot go into bookstores and libraries and obtain records’ — because they can, but they must have probable cause to do so.”

Republicans also argued against statements by some Democrats that the Justice Department was abusing its power.

“On September 18 of last year, the number of times the Justice Department used this Section 215 of the Patriot Act was zero. There is no abuse here,” said Rep. Howard Coble, North Carolina Republican.

But Rep. John Conyers Jr., Michigan Democrat and ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, said Congress could not trust the Justice Department when it comes to the Patriot Act.