Senate Democrats Sneak Through Patriot Act Extension With No Reforms
This month, we’ve heard from the Democrats in the Senate that, this time, the third time around for reauthorization of of Patriot Act spying powers so extreme and unconstitutional that they were given an expiration date, things would be different. After all, it’s been documented that the spying powers of the Patriot Act are only used in investigations connected to alleged terrorist conspiracies a fraction of one percent of the time. The rest of the time, the Patriot Act’s spying targets people, often Americans, who have nothing at all to do with terrorism.
How would things be different? Would the Democratic Party filibuster to stop Patriot Act renewal? Well, no.
Would the Democrats in the Senate vote against the renewal of the most abusive Patriot Act spying against Americans? Well, maybe some of them might choose to do so, but no, there would be no such organized effort.
The little pledge that the Senate Democrats made was to try to pass a slightly better version of the Patriot Act renewal than the House Republicans would. The Senate Democrats pledged to try to pass a Patriot Act renewal that gave some small, gentle reforms of the worst Big Brother provisions of the surveillance law.
That’s not what happened yesterday. The Senate Democratic leadership didn’t even allow a Senate bill with gentle reforms to come up for a vote. Yesterday, with little advanced warning, the Senate Democrats brought the House Republican bill, H.R. 514, the bill with no reforms, up for a vote, and they passed it. Only 9 Democratic senators voted against it. Those Democrats were:
Max Baucus (D-Montana). Phone: 202-224-2651 or Contact online
Mark Begich (D-Alaska). Phone: 202-224-3004 or Contact online
Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). Phone: 202-224-2315 or Contact online
Thomas Harkin (D-Iowa). Phone: 202-224-3254 or Contact online
Frank Lautenberg (D-New Jersey). Phone: 202-224-3224 or Contact online
Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon). Phone: 202-224-3753 or Contact online
Patty Murray (D-Washington). Phone: 202-224-2621 or Contact online
href=”http://sanders.senate.gov/contact/contact.cfm”>Contact online
Jon Tester (D-Montana). Phone: 202-224-2644 or Contact online
Tom Udall (D-New Mexico). Phone: 202-224-6621 or Contact online
No hearings. No investigations of new reports that the FBI has violated even the flimsy legal standards of the Patriot Act for search and seizure tens of thousands of times.
The Senate Democrats simply abandoned their promise to try to reform the Patriot Act, and passed the Patriot Act extension that the House Republicans wanted. Democratic voters, is that what you were expecting when you voted to put Democrats in charge of the Senate?
Look at the FULL ROLL CALL OF THE VOTE to see how your Senator voted.
