Patriot Act extension
The House of Representatives agreed to extend a controversial domestic surveillance law this afternoon, but it limited the extension to a little over one month and rejected a carefully brokered compromise from the Senate that had given the law a six-month reprieve.Top Senate aides said they believed the Senate would endorse the House plan tonight.
President Bush, who had earlier rejected a three-month extension and yesterday embraced the six-month deal, issued a statement this evening saying, “I appreciate the strong commitment by the majority of the House and of the Senate to re-authorize the Patriot Act. . . . I will work closely with the House and Senate to make sure that we are not without this crucial law for even a day.”
It appears that House Republicans want to continue to engage in brinksmanship as a strategy to get their (pretty much the President’s) version of the Patriot Act passed. I disagree with this strategy. There is no reason that I can see that a substantive debate shouldn’t take place on the merits of the House and Senate versions of this very serious law. A six month extension would allow that to happen.
Pretty much everyone agrees that most of the Patriot Act is both good and necessary for the war on terror with only a few areas being controversial. It is vital that Congress maintain those non-controversial areas of the Patriot Act and House Republicans know this. They are, in this case, the ones be obstructionist and playing with National Security for partisan gains, trying to force Democratic votes against the Patriot Act.
I am not impressed with them.
