GOP suffers blow as Senate blocks Patriot Act extension

WASHINGTON -- The Senate yesterday refused to extend expiring portions of the Patriot Act, shocking Republican leaders who had confidently predicted victory and marking another repudiation of the Bush administration's tactics in combating terrorism.

The vote came amid rising tensions in Congress over disclosures that President Bush gave the National Security Agency permission to spy on US citizens following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks -- and a day after Bush was forced to accept a blanket ban on torture, legislation that he had long pushed to scuttle.

In rejecting the extension, lawmakers from both parties reflected deepening questions about the Bush administration's methods in its war on terrorism.

Senator Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican, said Congress must set a new ''equilibrium" between national security and personal freedoms. ''Confidence and trust in one's government is the only currency there is in life in a democracy," said Hagel, one of four Republicans to join nearly all Senate Democrats in voting against the extension.

''If citizens do not have confidence and trust in their government -- that their government is protecting their rights, and those that they send to represent them in Washington are protecting their rights -- then there will be a very severe breakdown in society," he said.

The filibuster, triggered by a bipartisan group of senators worried about protections for civil liberties, leaves major provisions of the Patriot Act in danger of expiring at the end of the year. The White House and majority leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican, rejected a short-term extension of the law, which would have allowed time to negotiate changes early next year.

Before the vote, Frist and his leadership team were sure that they could get the 60 votes needed to end debate on the Patriot Act extension and bring the bill to a vote. But rank-and-file senators, some of them angry over a New York Times report that Bush had personally authorized the NSA to eavesdrop on Americans' conversations and e-mails, didn't comply.

Frist mustered 53 votes -- seven short of the number he needed; besides Hagel, Republican senators John Sununu of New Hampshire, Larry E. Craig of Idaho, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joined with the Democrats. Senate minority leader Harry Reid, appearing at a rally with House and Senate Democrats after the vote, said his party upheld the law as currently written.

''We killed the Patriot Act," declared Reid, Democrat of Nevada. Later in the day, he gave a speech on the Senate floor explaining that Democrats don't want to kill the Patriot Act outright, but want to guarantee more safeguards.

The vote sent the White House and Republican Senate leaders scrambling for a fallback strategy. The White House immediately dispatched Vice President Dick Cheney and Andrew H. Card Jr., the president's chief of staff, to the Capitol to plot with Senate Republicans.

Frist said he would keep the Senate in session through the weekend to pass the Patriot Act extension. If the law expires, he said, Democrats who voted to hold it up would be responsible. Still, he predicted that senators who oppose the extension will change their minds when they realize their stance could endanger lives.

''We will pass this bill. It just looks like it's going to take a little bit longer," said Frist. ''Advance or retreat, it's as simple or that. . . . A vote against the Patriot Act amounts to retreat."

Republicans warned that a failure to reach a deal will prevent law enforcement authorities from sharing foreign-intelligence information, and will rob investigators of a crucial weapon in the war on terrorism. Bush issued a statement last night urging senators to ''stop their delaying tactics so that we are not without this critical law for even a single moment."

''These senators need to understand that the Patriot Act expires in 15 days, but the terrorist threat to America will not expire on that schedule," Bush said.

The bill's opponents demand that, if the Patriot Act is reauthorized, it must include new provisions, such as allowing the targets of investigations to have their cases heard by judges, and to appeal gag orders in court. ''The standard should be to put in place measures that will protect civil liberties no matter who holds the power," said Sununu, a leader in efforts to insert more safeguards into the Patriot Act. Speaking on the Senate floor, Sununu paraphrased Benjamin Franklin: ''Those that would give up essential liberty in pursuit of a little temporary security deserve neither liberty nor security."

The Patriot Act passed with little opposition after the Sept. 11 attacks, as the Bush administration pushed to give federal authorities broad new powers to gather intelligence on potential terrorists.

But the law has emerged as a flashpoint between civil libertarians and the administration's allies. The FBI's authority to secretly search library and hospital records -- and to use classified ''national security letters" to demand documents without a judge's permission -- has been particularly controversial.

Lawmakers who want the act revamped got a boost from the disclosure of the warrantless wiretaps on US citizens conducted by the NSA, which is charged with monitoring activities by foreign citizens communicating in other countries.

''I don't want to hear again from the attorney general or anyone on this floor that this government has shown it can be trusted to use the power we give it with restraint and care," said Russell Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat.

Republicans went on the offensive immediately after the vote.

Ken Mehlman, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, issued a statement with an oblique reference to former senator Max Cleland, a Georgia Democrat and decorated Vietnam veteran voted out of office three years ago in part because he opposed creation of the Department of Homeland Security.

''In 2002, the American people rejected politicians who blocked the Department of Homeland Security to appease public employee unions," Mehlman said. ''Democrats who blocked the Patriot Act to appease the hard left should beware."

But Hagel appealed to his fellow Republicans to tone down such rhetoric. ''The American people generally are pretty fed up with all of this," Hagel said.

Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, the top Democrat on the judiciary committee, noted that Democrats are more than willing to extend the law temporarily until their concerns are addressed.

''Our goal has been to mend the Patriot Act, not to end it," Leahy said.