[IP] An experiment using MAC OS X Summary service --Bush Wins; House Leaves Patriot Act As Is
Begin forwarded message:
From: John Wittig <wittigjr@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: July 9, 2004 8:57:32 AM EDT
To: Dave Farber <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Bush Wins; House Leaves Patriot Act As Is
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040708/ap_on_go_co/
congress_patriot_act
By ALAN FRAM, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - The Republican-led House bowed to a White House veto
threat Thursday and stood by the USA Patriot Act, defeating an effort
to block the part of the anti-terrorism law that helps the government
investigate people's reading habits.
...The amendment appeared on its way to victory as the roll call's
normal 15-minute time limit expired, but GOP leaders kept the vote open
for 23 more minutes as they persuaded about 10 Republicans who
initially supported the provision to change their votes.
...The tactic was reminiscent of last year's House passage of the
Medicare overhaul measure, when GOP leaders held the vote open for an
extra three hours until they got the votes they needed.
...Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., said he switched his initial "yes" vote to
"no" after being shown Justice Department (news - web sites) documents
asserting that terrorists have communicated over the Internet via
public library computers.
...The House has voted before to block portions of the nearly
three-year-old law, but Congress has never succeeded in rolling back
any of it.
..."I would say, in my judgment, that lives have been saved, terrorists
have been disrupted, and our country is safer" because of the act, said
Rep. Porter Goss, R-Fla., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee
and a man President Bush (news - web sites) is considering to be the
next director of the Central Intelligence Agency (news - web sites).
Otter and Rep. Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., led the effort to block one
section of the law that lets authorities get special court orders
requiring book dealers, libraries and others to surrender records such
as purchases and Internet sites visited on a library computer.
...The House voted last summer to block so-called "sneak and peek"
searches the law allows without the target's knowledge and with
warrants delivered afterward, but the provision never became law.
...Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., read a letter from the Justice Department
stating that "as recently as this past winter and spring, a member of a
terrorist group closely affiliated with al-Qaida" had used Internet
services at a public library.
..."If we can stop what took place in my area," said Wolf, whose
district is near the Pentagon (news - web sites), a Sept. 11 target,
"then I want to stop that, because we've gone to enough funerals."
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