Spying Without Oversight is a Compromise?

Congressional leaders have agreed to extend key provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act until June 2015, according to reports today. The extension will not include reforms.

Three controversial provisions of the law are set to expire on May 27 which authorize the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to grant warrants to federal investigators for "roving wiretaps" of an individual; for surveillance of a foreign citizen, even without showing that the person is a terrorist or foreign agent; and for "business records," including library records.

Yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) introduced a proposal to extend the expiring provisions through 2014 without reforms, signaling the Senate majority position. The House Judiciary Committee previously advanced a bill to extend the roving wiretap and business records provisions through 2017 and make the "lone wolf" provision permanent, also without reforms. The Intelligence Committee discharged the bill yesterday, readying it for the House floor.

Reid today filed cloture on the extension through 2015, with a cloture vote scheduled for Monday afternoon. The House also is expected to vote before the May 27 expiration.

Reform advocates had pinned their hopes to Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT)'s S. 193, which renews the Patriot Act authorities but adds requirements, including transparency and oversight provisions. Leahy hopes to offer amendments to the bill the Senate will consider next week.

The Hill, apparently without irony, called Reid's bill a middle ground:

Reid's bill could ultimately be seen as a compromise: one that satisfies Democrats by providing a shorter extension than what Republicans are seeking, but one that also satisfies Republicans by not including new oversight language.

Civil libertarians, from the right-wing Campaign for Liberty to the left-wing Demand Progress, are pushing to let the provisions expire. Leahy's bill is a compromise from that position, renewing the provisions but adding scrutiny. The new "compromise" bill is even weaker. Four more years of government surveillance without oversight is hardly a compromise.

Meanwhile, do Republicans really want to be known as the party of no oversight? Apparently Rep. J. Randy Forbes (R-VA) does: during the House Judiciary Committee's markup, he argued that "we've got more than enough oversight" of the Patriot Act already.

Remember the House Republicans' pre-election Pledge to America?

Every American must ask: what has Congress done to ensure opportunity and to safeguard my liberty and the freedoms guaranteed to me in the Constitution? ...

[W]e will serve as a check and a balance against any schemes that are inconsistent with the priorities and rights of the American people:

We will fight to ensure transparency and accountability in Congress and throughout government. ...

What happened to that?

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