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THE LAW LOFT
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2005
“Mr. Smith goes to
Washington” move stops Patriot Act Reauthorization in its tracks
US Senate - Friday:
In a tense setting reminiscent of the 1930s movie, the Senate refused to
close debate and bring to a vote the Conference Report 109-333 to H.R.
3199, the USA Patriot Act Improvements and Reauthorization Act of 2005.
Sixty votes yea/yes would have closed debate and brought the measure to
a vote instead the cloture motion was defeated by a vote of 47 no to 52
yes.
How it happened?
As reported yesterday, we knew the vote would be close. So, what
influenced the result? A combination of grassroots pressure and a front
page article in today’s New York Times that shocked the Senate seem to
have made the difference. The New York Times front page article entitled
“Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Court Order” by James Risen
and Eric Lichtblau that appeared on line and in print on Friday morning
revealed that in 2002 President Bush signed a secret executive order
permitted the National Security Agency, a top secret overseas
eavesdropping and signals interception agency to eavesdrop on the phone
calls and e-mails of hundreds to thousands of people inside the USA in
secret without a single court order or any judicial oversight. While the
administration will undoubtedly argue that this secret order was legal
as within the powers of the commander-in-chief per se, most members of
the Senate clearly felt that such conduct violated the provisions of the
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act passed by them and constituted
both a shocking and flagrant violation of law and an abuse of power.
Even pro Patriot Conference Report proponent and Senate Judiciary
Committee chair Arlen Specter vowed Senate hearings into these events
first thing next year.
But for others, unsure last night of how they should vote, The New York
Times piece was the clincher. With a power abuser in the White House
they have better err in the direction of more safeguards, more checks
and balances to protect civil liberties which this conference report
clearly does not do.
“I went to bed last night unsure on how to vote,” said New York
Democratic Senator Charles Schumer. “Today’s revelation that the
government listened in is shocking and has greatly influenced my vote.
We had better make sure we have safeguards,” he added.
Who did what:
So a combination of 42 Democrats and 4 Republicans: Larry Craig of
Idaho, Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and John Sununu
of New Hampshire defeated the debate halting cloture motion thus
preventing a vote on the bill anytime soon.¹
Why the Senate leadership did what it did and What’s next:
The failure to close debate could have been met by a withdrawal of the
bill for redrafting (Majority Leader Frist has preserved that option but
has not yet exercised it) or as the Democrats had hoped, resulted in
bringing a bill granting a short extension to the sunseting provisions
of the act to the floor. But Majority Leader Bill Frist rejected both of
these options at least for now. Instead Frist opted to put Democrats and
the 4 Republicans to the task of filibustering, that is talking on and
on, until some kind of compromise occurs behind the scenes and/or the
Democrats run out of steam and the bill comes to a vote. Our
parliamentarian here at The Law Loft speculated that Frist did not have
quite enough votes to assure passage and will pour on the pressure over
the weekend to try to garner more votes.
Indeed, events since today’s historic vote seem to support this theory.
President Bush will devote Saturday’s radio address to why the USA
Patriot Act must be reauthorized in the current conference committee
form.
The Senate now comes back into session tomorrow, Saturday, at 4:00 p.m.
and will probably be in session on Sunday as well. So it looks like a
battle for the hearts and minds of Americans and for control of the
front pages of newspapers and the votes of senators will continue.
What you must do now:
If the President can pour on the pressure, so can we. Everyone should:
write to both of your senators thanking those who said no to cloture and
expressing disappointment with those who said yes to cloture. (A
complete list of who is who is on the Senate website at:
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.efm
write to the four key Republicans and thank them for their vote.
(Whether Democrat or Republican, standing up to intra-party pressure is
an unpleasant thing and they deserve our thanks.)
What we need to do over the next week:
Since backroom negotiating will probably continue next week, we need to
keep the pressure on to re-write the bill into something we can live
with. The Law Loft will draft a more detailed description of this
legislation explaining why its such a hazard to civil liberty starting
this weekend. The bill description will appear on our website http://www.thelawloft.com
by Monday of this coming week. If you need more help in the meantime,
contact us at
thelawloft@hotmail.com .
1. Republican Majority Leader Frist
voted no as a procedural move to preserve the option of recommitting the
bill to the Conference Committee at a later time. Thus the true no vote
was 46, plus 1, the one being strictly for procedural purposes
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