Another short extension expected for Patriot Act
Congress still seen deadlocked on law
WASHINGTON -- The House of Representatives is expected to vote as early as today to extend the USA Patriot Act until the middle of March, a sign that Congress remains deadlocked over whether the surveillance law threatens civil liberties, congressional aides said.
The Patriot Act, which is set to expire on Friday, has already been extended once. In December, Democrats and a handful of Republicans in the Senate blocked a bill that would have made the law permanent, arguing that it must include greater safeguards to ensure that the FBI does not abuse its enhanced powers to conduct secret searches and seize business records.
House Republicans, led by House Judiciary Committee chairman James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, have balked at the Senate's proposed changes. Since December, the two sides have remained in talks but neither has given ground. A deal to extend the existing law by six more weeks would provide more time for negotiations.
If the bill passes the House, the Senate would then consider it.
Shortly before word of Sensenbrenner's intention to pass another short-term extension emerged yesterday, a key Senate Democrat asked Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to explain whether President Bush believes he has the power to keep using the tools in the Patriot Act in Al Qaeda-related investigations, even if the law expires.
Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent Gonzales a letter asking him to respond by Friday to questions raised in a Jan. 25 Globe article about the Patriot Act and the administration's legal defense of its domestic surveillance program.
''The Boston Globe [story] raised questions last week about whether the president can continue using the tools that Congress provided in the Patriot Act, regardless of whether Congress reauthorizes the act this year," Leahy wrote. ''Which, if any, of the expiring Patriot authorities would continue to be legal even in the absence of specific authorizing legislation? Please explain your response."
Bush has authorized the military to wiretap Americans' international phone calls and e-mail without obtaining warrants, as a 1978 law requires. Responding to criticism that the spying program may be illegal, the administration says Bush's wartime powers give him the authority to lawfully override the warrant requirement.
