PATRIOT ACT BREEZES TO REAPPROVAL IN THE SENATE

14 Of 16 Sections Made Permanent

WASHINGTON -- The Senate today gave its blessing to the renewal of
the USA Patriot Act after adding new privacy protections designed to
strike a better balance between civil liberties and the government's
power to root out terrorists.

The 89-10 vote marked a bright spot in President Bush's troubled
second term as his approval ratings dipped over the war in Iraq and
his administration's response to Hurricane Katrina. Renewing the act,
Bush and congressional Republicans said, was key to preventing more
terror attacks in the United States.

Bush applauded the Senate for overcoming "partisan attempts to block
its passage." The House was expected to approve the two-bill package
next week and send it to the president, who would sign it before 16
provisions expire March 10.

"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," Bush said in a statement from India.

Critics held their ground. A December filibuster led by Sen. Russell
Feingold, D-Wis., and joined by several libertarian-leaning
Republicans, forced the Bush administration to agree to modest new
curbs on the government's power to probe library, bank and other records.

Feingold insisted those new protections are cosmetic.

"Americans want to defeat terrorism and they want the basic character
of this country to survive and prosper," he said. "They want both
security and liberty, and unless we give them both -- and we can if
we try -- we have failed."

Some 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 of Nevada, who voted to
pass the bill package. "What we tried to do on a bipartisan basis is
have a better bill. It has been improved."

Not enough even for the bill's chief sponsor in the Senate, Judiciary
Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa. After prolonged negotiations
produced a House-Senate compromise, Specter urged his colleagues to
pass it even as he promised to introduce a new measure and hold
hearings on how to fix it.

For now, Bush and his Republican allies savored a significant
victory. For months, their tough-on-terror image has been tarnished
by the revelation that the president authorized a secret domestic
wiretapping program. The report in December gave Democrats ammunition
for their charge that the Bush administration had run amok in its
zeal to root out terrorists.

With the help of some Republicans, they blocked a vote on whether to
renew the law before 16 provisions expired on Dec. 31.

GOP leaders were unable to break the gridlock, so Congress opted
instead to extend the deadline twice while negotiations continued. In
the end, the White House and the Republicans broke the stalemate by
crafting a second measure that would curb some powers of law
enforcement officials seeking information. Both will be sent as a
package to Bush.

This second bill -- in effect an amendment to the measure renewing
the 16 provisions -- would add new protections to the 2001 antiterror
law in three areas. It would:

- -- Give recipients of court-approved subpoenas for information in
terrorist investigations the right to challenge a requirement that
they refrain from telling anyone.

- -- Eliminate a requirement that an individual provide the FBI with
the name of a lawyer consulted about a National Security Letter,
which is a demand for records issued by investigators.

- -- Clarify that most libraries are not subject to demands in those
letters for information about suspected terrorists.

Passed in the weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the
original Patriot Act expanded the government's surveillance and
prosecutorial powers against suspected terrorists, their associates
and financiers.

The renewal package would make 14 of 16 temporary provisions
permanent and set four-year expirations on the others.

The renewal includes several measures not directly related to
terrorism. One would make it harder for illicit labs to obtain
ingredients for methamphetamine by requiring pharmacies to sell
nonprescription cold medicines only from behind the counter.

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.

Feingold's chief ally, 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.

Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, did not vote.