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Senate deal extends Patriot Act

A last-minute compromise wins a six-month extension for the antiterrorism law, part of which was to expire Dec. 31.

WASHINGTON - The Senate agreed Wednesday night on a deal that allows a six-month extension of the USA Patriot Act, hoping to avoid the expiration of law enforcement powers deemed vital to the war on terror.

Approval came on a voice vote, and cleared the way for a final vote in the House. he House is expected to reconvene today to vote on the issue.

The agreement capped several days of negotiation conducted against the backdrop of presidential criticism of opponents of the legislation.

The Patriot Act provisions will expire Dec. 31 if the House and Senate do not act.

The extension gives critics - who filibustered a House-Senate compromise that would have made most of the law permanent - more time to seek civil liberty safeguards in the law.

Democrats and their allies had originally asked for a three-month extension, and the Senate's Republican majority had offered a one-year extension. The final deal was six months.

The House will have to approve the extension before President Bush could sign it into law, and the House is scheduled to remain in recess until Jan. 31. The House previously voted to renew the act as it is, not to extend it temporarily.

"For a lot of reasons, (the temporary extension) made the most sense, given that there are significant differences that remain," said GOP Sen. John Sununu of New Hampshire, one of a small group of Republicans who joined with Senate Democrats to filibuster a House-Senate compromise.

"I think this is a reasonable conclusion," said Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

"It gets us to where we want to get," said Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, one of four Republicans who joined Democrats in blocking renewal of the law.

"The majority of the United States Senate did not want to see the Patriot Act die. We wanted to see it reformed."

Republicans who had pushed for legislation that would make most of the expiring provisions permanent said the agreement only postpones the ongoing arguments over the Patriot Act for six months.

"Our intelligence and law enforcement officials should not be left wondering, yet again, whether the Congress will manage to agree to reauthorize the tools that protect our nation," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.

The bill's critics gained momentum Wednesday when they released a letter crafted by Sununu and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., showing they had 52 senators agreeing to support a three-month extension.

"This is the right thing to do for the country," Schumer said after the deal had been announced. "To let the Patriot Act lapse would have been a dereliction of duty."

President Bush, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Republican congressional leaders have lobbied to get the House-Senate compromise passed, and have issued warnings about what could happen if the Patriot Act expires.

Most of the Patriot Act - which expanded the government's surveillance and prosecutorial powers against suspected terrorists, their associates and financiers - was made permanent when Congress overwhelmingly passed it after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.

Making permanent the rest of the Patriot Act powers, like the roving wiretaps that allow investigators to listen in on any telephone and tap any computer they think a target might use, has been a priority of the Bush administration and Republican lawmakers.

Information from the Associated Press, New York Times and Knight Ridder news service was used in this report.

[Last modified December 22, 2005, 00:59:14]