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The Law Loft
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
11:00 p.m. CT
SENATE AGREES TO SIX MONTH EXTENSION OF PATRIOT ACT PROVISIONS
After hours and hours of inaction today, the Senate resumed active
session late today and passed a series of measures in rapid succession.
Among these was a six month extension of the sunsetting provisions of
the patriot act which was adopted by unanimous consent.
Since we did not see (and currently cannot see) the hard copy of the
text adopted, we are presuming that it will say nothing more than that
those provisions set to sunset on December 31st will be extended for six
months. The Senate Majority Leader said, on the floor of the Senate over
an hour after passage, ‘the text is being written now,’ so presumably
the Senate passed the measure based on some scribbled notes and not a
real text. Since official texts adopted by Congress often don’t match
their titles, we will let you know if there is anything else in the text
as soon as it is online.
What’s next?
The six month extension adopted by the Senate will be forwarded to the
House tomorrow. House passage could occur as soon as tomorrow.
We presume that the president, notwithstanding bluster to the contrary,
has indicated that he will sign the six month extension and not veto it.
Even if the president is still threatening a veto, the House and the
Senate still have the option of passing the measure by 2/3 majority thus
overriding any presidential veto.
Is this good news or bad?
Assuming that there are no surprises in the actual text, it is good
news. While one would prefer not to keep bad laws on the books for an
extra six months, it’s far, far better than making them permanent and
forces some kind of review early next year. So, all in all, this appears
to be good news. One disgruntled observer from the House side commented
today that they (proponents of the patriot act conference report and
eavesdropping by presidential order) just couldn’t seem to overcome the
poor perception that the public had acquired due to the eavesdropping
scandal! |
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