Members of the Senate Judiciary Committe have struck a deal for renewal of the Patriot Act, with, apparently, modest improvements, and leaving off the expansion proposals.
I've not yest found the proposed language.
Below the fold, Senator Feingold's Press release, as found at wispolitics.com
Contact: Trevor Miller (202) 224-8657
Mr. Chairman, I want to say a few words about this bill and about the compromise that was worked out late last night. Thanks in large part to your leadership, I believe the end result of the negotiations process has been a positive one - and one that I can support.
As introduced, your bill made progress in the right direction. I appreciated that you drafted reauthorization legislation that made improvements to existing law, and that did not contain the most troublesome expansions of the Patriot Act that we have seen in some other proposals.
But I could not have supported your bill without additional changes on the key issues that I and others have been concerned about.
The compromise that you laid out last night does not address everything that I would have liked to have seen revised in this bill. Nor am I happy with some of the changes made in response to requests from some of my colleagues on the other side of the room. But the compromise does address the core concerns that I and others have had about the standard for Section 215 orders, about sneak and peek search warrants, and about meaningful judicial review of Section 215 orders and National Security Letters, including judicial review of the gag rule. It does not go as far on any of these issues as the SAFE Act does, but it does make meaningful changes to current law.