Utah U.S. Senators Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett voted for the renewal of the Patriot Act in a 89-10 vote on Thursday. The bill now goes to the House, which is expected to pass it.
Orrin Hatch: “I just hope that this bill will work as well as the original Patriot Act, which has done so well” at preventing terrorist attacks.
Bush, in a statement issued by the White House while he was in India, applauded the Senate for overcoming what he said were attempts by Democrats to block the bill’s passage.
“This bill will allow our law enforcement officials to continue to use the same tools against terrorists that are already used against drug dealers and other criminals, while safeguarding the civil liberties of the American people,” he said.
Critics maintained the bill is weighted too much toward the interests of law enforcement.
Lawmakers who voted for the package acknowledged deep reservations about the power it would grant to any president.
“Our support for the Patriot Act does not mean a blank check for the president,” said Democratic leader Harry Reid. “What we tried to do on a bipartisan basis is have a better bill. It has been improved.”
The vote was a significant victory for Bush after revelations late last year that he had authorized a domestic wiretapping program provided ammunition to senators demanding more privacy protections in the Patriot Act.
As a result of a filibuster and deadlock in December, the bill was amended to “curb some powers of law enforcement officials seeking information”.
The bill also includes non-terrorist related restrictions, such as making it law that pharmacies would have to sell non-prescription cold medications behind the counter (imagine the line in which you will have to wait to purchase a cough remedy for your next cold), so that people who want to make methamphetamine would have a harder time obtaining such ingredients as is found in those remedies.
Another focuses on port security, imposing new criminal sanctions and a death sentence in certain circumstances for placing a device or substance in U.S. waters that could damage vessels or cargo.
Once again we witness lawmakers, particularly the Democrats, saying one thing and doing another. If lawmakers like Harry Reid have “deep reservations” about bills, why buckle in and vote for it?
Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., said the package was not enough to check what he described as a presidential tendency through history of “always grabbing more power.”
“The erosion of freedom rarely comes as an all-out frontal assault,” warned Byrd, the dean of the Senate. “Rather, it is a gradual, noxious creeping cloaked in secrecy and glossed over by reassurances of greater security.”
The “no” votes came from Jim Jeffords, I-Vt., and Feingold, Byrd and seven other Senate Democrats: Daniel Akaka of Hawaii, Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, Tom Harkin of Iowa, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Carl Levin of Michigan, Patty Murray of Washington and Ron Wyden of Oregon.
Deanna Dee-Dee Taylor 