The Senate also rejected a proposal by minority leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.)—which the President had said he would not sign—to extend the Patriot Act for just three months to allow time to improve the bill’s protections for civil liberties.
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he had been leaning toward opposing the filibuster but changed his mind after the New York Times reported December 16 that President Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency to wiretap phone and e-mail conversations of people in the United States without court-approved warrants. “Today’s revelation that the government listened to thousands of conversations is shocking and greatly influenced my vote,” he said, according to a December 16 Bloomsberg news agency report.
If Congress fails to reach a compromise, 16 provisions of the Patriot Act will expire December 31—a prospect that Republicans said they would blame on Democrats in next year’s elections. “In the war on terror, we cannot afford to be without these vital tools for a single moment,” said White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, the Associated Press reported December 16. “The time for Democrats to stop standing in the way has come.”
“Do those who oppose the conference report want the Patriot Act to expire? Of course not,” said Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), who had promised to filibuster the bill. “It is shameful to threaten that that is what will happen if the Senate does not approve this conference report. The only way that the Patriot Act will expire at the end of this year is if the proponents of the conference report . . . block alternative reauthorization bills that can easily pass with widespread, bipartisan support.”
Posted December 16, 2005.