WASHINGTON (KRT) — With the threat of anthrax lingering over them, senators on Thursday overwhelmingly approved legislation that gives police broader powers to wiretap phones, track Internet traffic and examine private financial and educational records in the hunt for terrorists.
The 98-1 vote, cast 45 days after the suicide attacks on the Pentagon and New York’s World Trade Center, cleared the way for President Bush to sign the measure into law Friday in an East Room ceremony. The House approved the measure Wednesday by a broad margin.
The bill enhances the ability of police to conduct surveillance, cracks down on money laundering and gives the attorney general greater power to deport and detain immigrants suspected of terrorism.
Attorney General John Ashcroft vowed Thursday to begin using his new powers swiftly. “A new era in America’s fight against terrorism, made tragically necessary by the attacks of September 11, is about to begin,” he said.
The bill contains many of the provisions the White House sought, but it weakens some of the tougher proposals Ashcroft had requested. A number of lawmakers expressed concern that the legislation undermines civil liberties and gives police too much power to violate citizens’ right to privacy.
In a key compromise, negotiators agreed that many of the surveillance provisions in the bill would expire by 2005. That measure gave lawmakers enough comfort to authorize police methods and techniques that until now have been illegal or have required greater court oversight.
Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Gordon Smith, R-Ore., had been blocking passage of the anti-terrorism bill, demanding that a provision be included amending the Citizens Protection Act, also called the McDade Law, which prohibits federal attorneys in Oregon from assisting in covert investigations.
The amendment to the McDade Law would allow federal attorneys in Oregon to give advice on undercover investigations. An August 2000 ruling by the Oregon Supreme Court prohibits federal prosecutors in Oregon from giving that advice, said Jim Sutherland, a lawyer with the U.S. Attorney General’s office in Eugene.
Oregon is the only state where the McDade Law is interpreted so strictly, according to Wyden’s office.
“If a federal prosecutor encourages a law enforcement officer to engage in an undercover investigation, that lawyer is involved in unethical activity,” Sutherland said.
Wyden and Smith are now seeking to use a foreign operations bill, which provides aid to foreign countries and appropriates funds to be used for combatting terrorism, as an opportunity to amend the Citizens Protection Act.
The amendment was originally included in the anti-terrorism bill, but the House and Senate were unable to reach agreement on the issue, said David Carle, a spokesman for Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.
The amendment, supported by Leahy, has been included in the foreign operations bill, which is pending approval in the House. The White House has voiced strong support for the wording of the bill that includes the Wyden-Leahy amendment, and commitment was also secured by Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, said Lisa Wade Raasch, the communication director for Wyden’s office.
Civil liberties groups had also fought the anti-terrorism legislation and called for more deliberation. But lawmakers said the terrorism investigations, coupled with an anthrax threat that has hit Congress itself, demanded quick action.
“This has not been easy,” said Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., himself the target of an anthrax-laden letter. “We were able to find what I think is the appropriate balance between protecting civil liberties and privacy, and ensuring that law enforcement has the tools it needs to do the job it must.”
The only opponent was Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., who tried but failed to amend the legislation earlier this month.
In a letter to senators this week, the American Civil Liberties Union called for the bill’s defeat, arguing that it gave unwarranted power to the executive branch.
The terrorist attacks gave lawmakers new impetus: The bill’s official name was the “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism ­ USA-PATRIOT Act.”
Lawmakers refused to give Ashcroft unfettered power to detain immigrants for unlimited periods based on his own suspicions of terrorist activity. The bill requires the attorney general to bring either criminal or immigration charges within seven days after taking an immigrant into custody.
Responding to law enforcement concerns, the bill will make it easier for federal agents to tap phones in more than one state at the same time. Investigators also will be able to track e-mail and Internet communications without a warrant, though one signed by a judge would be needed to read the contents of e-mails.
Investigators also will be able to secretly search property owned or occupied by suspected terrorists without giving prior notice. Confidential school records could be seized with a warrant; the administration had asked for the power to seize those records based only on a finding by the attorney general.
Prevented in the past from sharing information, federal law enforcement officials now will be able to pass information from federal criminal investigations to intelligence agencies.
Lawmakers dropped a provision Ashcroft sought that would have allowed the use of wiretap information that foreign governments had collected on Americans, even if that information were obtained in violation of U.S. laws or the laws of the foreign country.