Patriot Act compromise may be near

WASHINGTON -- A key group of Senate Republicans reached an agreement with the White House yesterday to include several new civil liberties protections in the USA Patriot Act, a development that appears likely to break a logjam over extending the controversial antiterrorism law.

As a result, four Republicans who joined Democrats in filibustering the Patriot Act in December said they've agreed to drop their objections. At least one key Democrat has joined them, meaning the revised Patriot Act appears on track for a four-year extension.

''We could simply do better to protect civil liberties, even as we gave law enforcement important tools to conduct terrorism investigations," said Senator John E. Sununu, Republican of New Hampshire, who led negotiations with the White House and the Justice Department.

The compromise would allow subjects of investigations to challenge gag orders in court after waiting a year. The current law is vague on whether gag orders can ever be challenged.

In addition, the new bill does not include a provision that would have required the recipients of ''National Security Letters," which demand confidential information, to provide the names of their lawyers.

''We did not get everything we wanted," Sununu said. ''But I think it represents additional progress from where we were two months ago."

Though the agreement clears a significant obstacle for the Patriot Act extension, it's no guarantee of success. House leaders have taken a harder line on the Patriot Act.

The House Judiciary Committee chairman, F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., has been kept apprised of the negotiations, but he has not given the compromise his blessing. Sensenbrenner, a Wisconsin Republican, was attending a retreat in Maryland with his fellow House Republicans yesterday, and he declined to comment through his spokesman.

In addition, several Senate Democrats said yesterday that the changes negotiated by Republicans aren't good enough, and suggested that they may try another filibuster -- without Republican support.

Those Democrats contend that forcing gag-order recipients to wait a year before challenging it is unfair. They also want to force federal agents to produce a connection between a surveillance target and a suspected terrorist before they can use Patriot Act provisions in an investigation.

Senator Russell D. Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat who was the only senator to vote against the Patriot Act in 2001, derided the changes as ''insignificant" and said he would ''use every option at my disposal" to stop the bill as it's currently written.

''I will . . . continue to strongly oppose any reauthorization of the Patriot Act that does not protect the rights and freedoms of law-abiding Americans with no connection to terrorism," Feingold said. ''This deal does not meet that standard. It doesn't even come close."

But Democrats don't seem to have the votes they'd need to stop the bill through a filibuster, a procedural maneuver where as few as 41 of the 100 senators can prevent legislative action. Republicans hold 55 of the Senate seats.

The Senate's second-ranked Democrat, Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, said he would support the compromise, even though it doesn't contain all of the safeguards he wanted.

''We made progress here -- significant progress -- progress that moves us in the right direction," said Durbin, the minority whip. He said Democrats may try to insert more civil liberties protections later, if more flaws surface in the current legislation.

Harry Reid, Senate minority Leader, was more cautious, but praised the lawmakers who negotiated the compromise.

''The deal reached by my Republican colleagues appears to be a step in the right direction," said Reid, a Nevada Democrat.

Sixteen provisions of the Patriot Act -- including allowing federal agencies to share intelligence more easily and permitting secret court orders that authorize searches of library and other records -- were given four-year lifespans when the measure was first passed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The yearlong debate over extending the law has developed into a major battle over whether the Bush administration's antiterror efforts come at the expense of civil liberties. The White House initially insisted that Congress make permanent the entire Patriot Act as is, but a bipartisan group of lawmakers pushed for judicial oversight of the act's more controversial provisions.

As the act's Dec. 31 expiration date drew near, attempts to extend the law were complicated by the disclosure that President Bush secretly authorized warrantless eavesdropping on Americans' communications with suspected terrorists who are outside the country.

With compromise elusive, the president signed off on back-to-back one-month extensions of the law; the provisions are now set to expire March 10. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the agreement reached yesterday will ''build upon the civil liberties protections that are in place, but do so in a way that doesn't compromise our national security priorities within this legislation."