Washington The U.S. Senate today rejected a Bush administration attempt to reauthorize provisions of the Patriot Act after a coalition of senators – including Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo. – persuaded their colleagues not to move to a final vote.
A motion to cut off debate, which needed 60 votes under Senate rules, won the support of only 52 senators. Several Republicans joined most Senate Democrats in opposing the bill, claiming it intrudes on American civil liberties.
Debate continued on the bill today after Republican leaders rebuffed attempts at a compromise, which would extend the bill for three months.
Resistance to the bill was fueled by a story published in The New York Times, which reported today that Bush had authorized the National Security Agency to secretly intercept – without a court warrant – the telephone calls and e-mails of American citizens.
At least hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of international phone calls and e-mails by Americans were monitored by the NSA, a top-secret agency that uses satellites and other sophisticated technology to eavesdrop and spy around the world, the newspaper reported.
“These reports, … if true, are deeply, deeply troubling,” said Salazar. “If we needed a wake-up call for adequate civil liberties protection, … this was the wakeup call.”
Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wisc., called the NSA’s actions a “shocking revelation that ought to send a chill down the spine of every senator and every American.”
But most Republican senators brushed aside the news, and reminded their colleagues that the Patriot Act had passed the Senate with overwhelming bipartisan support in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. The act gives U.S. law enforcement agencies broad authority to combat terrorist activities in the United States.
“A vote against the Patriot Act amounts to retreat and defeat,” said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.
Salazar was one of a half-dozen Democratic and Republican senators who pressed colleagues to insist that the Bush administration and the House of Representatives accept changes to the bill before Congress reauthorizes 16 provisions of the law, due to expire on Dec. 31.
Critics of the bill want better safeguards on government wiretapping, and on secret warrants that permit the government to search library records and other personal and business data.
