Four recalcitrant Senate Republicans said Thursday that they had reached agreement with the White House on the broad antiterrorism law known as the USA Patriot Act, and two leading Democrats said they would now support the bill. The moves possibly clear the way for passage of the legislation, which has been bottled up in a dispute over civil liberties.
The Republicans, led by Senator John E. Sununu of New Hampshire, joined with Democrats last year in a filibuster that blocked the revised bill. Their deal involved three changes that, they said, would place greater restraints on the government's latitude in obtaining personal information like library records and business transactions.
"This is an accommodation that I think we can be proud of," said another of the four senators, Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, adding that the changes to the bill "makes it relevant, makes it realistic, makes it workable and protects both our rights and our national security interests."
Critics said the changes were cosmetic. "A few insignificant changes just doesn't cut it," Senator Russell D. Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, said in a statement. "I cannot support this deal, and I will do everything I can to stop it." The administration would still have the power to obtain information about terror suspects who use libraries to gain access to the Internet by seeking that information not directly from libraries, but from their Internet service providers.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/10/politics/10patriot.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin
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