Law enforcement officials get to keep their anti-terror tools, but with some new curbs, under the USA Patriot Act renewal passed by the House in a cliffhanger vote.
The 280-138 vote on Tuesday passed by just two votes more than needed under special rules requiring a two-thirds majority.
The vote ended a months-long battle over how to balance privacy rights against the need to defeat potential terrorists -- a political struggle in which US President George W. Bush was forced to accept new restraints on law enforcement investigations.
Bush was expected to sign the legislation before 16 major provisions of the law, which was passed after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, expire tomorrow.
"The president looks forward to signing the bill," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.
Despite the wafer-thin margin of victory, Republicans -- who are seeking to polish their national security credentials this midterm election year -- declared the legislative war won on Tuesday, saying that the renewal of the act's 16 provisions will help law enforcement prevent terrorists from striking.
"This legislation is a win for law enforcement, the war on drugs, and for communities and families across America," Republican Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said in remarks prepared for yesterday.
Despite its passage, the Patriot Act still has staunch congressional opponents who protested it by voting ``no'' even on the part of the legislation that would add new civil rights protections. During the Senate's final debate last week, Democratic Senator Russell Feingold said he was voting ``no'' because the new protections for Americans were so modest they were almost meaningless.
For now, Bush will be signing a package on which members of both chambers of Congress and the president can agree.
Domestic spying
Meanwhile, support is building for a proposal from several moderate Senate Republicans that would give Bush's controversial surveillance program the force of law, more than four years after he secretly initiated the program.
The Republican efforts came on Tuesday as the Senate Intelligence Committee voted against opening a full-blown investigation into the US-based monitoring operations.
The White House has said that Bush ordered the disputed warrantless surveillance because he had the inherent authority as president and under a September 2001 resolution to use force in the war on terror. Although initially reluctant to work with Congress on a bill, the White House has come around in recent weeks after lawmakers threatened investigations.
The prospects for the draft legislation circulated on Tuesday are far from certain.
But Senator Mike DeWine, an Ohio Republican, and three other moderate Republicans who have helped shaped the debate on intelligence issues, are introducing legislation that has the general approval of the White House and the Senate's Republican and intelligence leadership.
Democrats furious
Meanwhile, Democrats on the Intelligence Committee expressed outrage after a meeting on Tuesday that senators voted -- along party lines -- to reject an investigation of the surveillance proposed by West Virginia Senator Jay Rockefeller, who is the top Democrat on the committee.
"The committee -- to put it bluntly -- basically is in the control of the White House," a visibly angry Rockefeller said.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was