Agreement made to extend Patriot Act

WASHINGTON -- A band of Senate Republican holdouts reached agreement with the White House Thursday on minor changes in the Patriot Act, hoping to clear the way for passage of anti-terror legislation that has been stalled in a dispute over protection of civil liberties.\nSen. John Sununu, R-N.H., and three other GOP lawmakers -- all of whom joined with Democrats last year to block a long-term extension of the law -- were to announce their accord with the administration in a late-afternoon news conference.\nWhite House press secretary Scott McClellan pre-empted them, saying the changes "continue to build upon the civil liberties protections that are in place but do so in a way that doesn't compromise our national security priorities."\nThere was no immediate reaction from House Republicans, although several GOP officials said key lawmakers had been informed of the proposed changes.\nOne GOP official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the legislation had been rewritten to make it clear that an individual receiving a so-called National Security Letter was not required to notify the FBI if he consulted a lawyer.\nThis official also said a second proposed change would clarify that only libraries that are "electronic service providers" could be required to provide information to government agents as part of a terrorist investigation.\nA GOP agreement would put Senate Democrats in a politically difficult position of deciding whether to renew their filibuster on an issue of national security -- an area where polling shows them trailing Bush and the Republicans.\nTwo Democrats swiftly denounced the GOP agreement, saying it fell short of what was needed.\nSen. Russell Feingold of Wisconsin said, "The few minor changes that the White House agreed to do not address the major problems with the Patriot Act that a bipartisan coalition has been trying to fix."\nSen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the senior Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, accused the White House of "naysaying and partisanship."\nStill, Leahy's statement stopped well short of joining in Feingold's threat to renew a filibuster that stopped passage of the legislation last year.\nThe Patriot Act was originally passed within days of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the administration says it has been an important weapon in the government's arsenal for tracking suspected terrorists.\nRenewal of the law was blocked last year when critics said its provisions shortchanged civil liberties, particularly in the cases of individuals who were not suspected of terrorist activities themselves, but might have had innocent dealings with suspects.\nAlso at issue was concern over the government's ability to demand information from libraries.\nAs a result of the deadlock, lawmakers decided to extend the old law temporarily, a short-term solution that left the administration and many in Congress unhappy.\nThe current extension expires March 10.\nRepublicans said that with the changes, the chance would be remote that any library would have to turn over information.\nBut Democrats said the same provision made explicit that some libraries could be forced to turn over information, adding that existing law is vague on the subject.\nOther than Sununu, the Republicans who had defied the president's wishes on the Patriot Act last December were Sens. Larry Craig of Idaho, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska.\nThe changes were worked out over several weeks in discussions that involved the lawmakers and White House Counsel Harriet Miers, according to one Republican familiar with the compromise efforts.\nOfficials who discussed the issue did so on condition of anonymity, saying they did not want to pre-empt a formal announcement.\nOn Dec. 16, the Senate voted 52-47 to move to a final vote on the legislation, which deals specifically with 16 provisions in the act that Congress wanted reviewed and renewed by the end of last year. That was eight votes short of the 60 needed to end the filibuster.