Voting against the bill were Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), who led a December filibuster to block renewal; eight other Democrats; and Jim Jeffords (I-Vt.). Some senators who approved the renewal said they thought it was improved but still didn’t go far enough to protect civil liberties. “Our support for the Patriot Act does not mean a blank check for the president,” said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), according to the March 2 Associated Press. “What we tried to do on a bipartisan basis is have a better bill.”
A day earlier, the Senate passed by a 95–4 margin a compromise bill (S. 2271) that amends the reauthorization to add some civil-liberties protections, including giving recipients of Section 215 orders the right to challenge the gag provision after one year. It also stipulates that national security letters (NSLs) could no longer be used to obtain records from libraries that function in their traditional capacity.
However, American Library Association Washington Office Associate Director Patrice McDermott pointed out that there are limitations to the added protections. She told American Libraries that although she believes the four Republican senators who sponsored the bill intended to exempt libraries from NSLs, the final language was not entirely clear and might allow that e-mail sent from library computers—or possibly web searches on library computers—could still be subject to NSLs.
“Although some have claimed that the compromise language includes new protections for library patrons, those alleged protections are illusory,” said ALA President Michael Gorman in a statement after the vote. “Section 215 continues to allow the government to secretly search library patron records without proof that the person whose records are being sought has committed a crime or is in contact with a suspected terrorist.” He also noted that it “does not allow Section 215 recipients to meaningfully challenge that gag order in a court of law.”
S. 2271 now goes to the House, which is expected to approve it, and the president would sign the entire reauthorization package into law before its March 10 expiration. The House had already approved H.R. 3199 in July 2005.
Posted March 3, 2006.