Senators Reach Compromise on USA Patriot Act Reauthorization

On Thursday, February 9, a bipartisan group of Senators, led by Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, announced that an agreement on modifications to the USA Patriot Act's expiring provisions had been reached. The group included five Senators who had previously opposed reauthorization of the legislation to allow time for Congress to fashion a compromise that would protect reader privacy. The revised Patriot Act reauthorization conference report, which most free speech advocates contend does not do enough to protect reader privacy, is expected to pass in both the Senate and the House, Congressional leaders told the Washington Post.

"We are unhappy that the negotiators did not convince the White House to agree to limit Section 215 orders to the records of people who are suspected of terrorism," said ABA COO Oren Teicher. "The administration's 'concessions' seem relatively unimportant in comparison. On the other hand, the reauthorization bill does contain changes that at least partially restore the safeguards for reader privacy that were eliminated by the Patriot Act, including the right to challenge Section 215 orders in court. Once the reauthorization bill is approved, ABA will inform booksellers about the changes in the law and how they can use them to protect customer privacy."

Two of the key modifications under the new agreement are:

• The reauthorization bill makes explicit the right to counsel and the right to challenge an order for any "tangible thing" sought in an intelligence investigation;
  
  
• In the original reauthorization bill, Section 215 was scheduled to expire after seven years, while, in the current bill, it will expire after four years.

Thursday's deal comes after months of debate over the unanimously passed Senate version of the Patriot Act reauthorization conference report and the House-passed version. Free speech groups, including the sponsors of the Campaign for Reader Privacy, urged Congress to adopt a conference committee bill that mirrored the Senate bill, which, they said, contained far greater safeguards to reader privacy than the House version.

However, when the final conference committee version of the bill left out a number of those key safeguards for reader privacy contained in the Senate version, a bipartisan group of Senators -- including John Sununu (R-NH), Russell Feingold (D-WI), Larry Craig (R-ID), Richard Durbin (D-IL), Charles Hagel (R-NE), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) -- blocked passage of the bill.

Ultimately, the original Patriot Act, which had been set to expire on December 31, 2005, was extended for five weeks. Last week, it was given another five-week extension.