WASHINGTON — After months of hard-fought negotiations, the Senate voted overwhelmingly Thursday to renew expiring portions of the Patriot Act after adding new privacy protections to the controversial law spawned by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Senators voted, 89 to 10, to make permanent 14 of the 16 provisions originally set to expire at the end of 2005. The other two, which govern secret government records searches, were modified and reauthorized for four years.
Many supporters of the bill said it marked an improvement over the original Patriot Act, which was designed to help thwart terrorist plots by expanding the government's investigative powers and breaking down the traditional wall of separation between domestic law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
President Bush praised the Senate's action. "The terrorists have not lost the will or the ability to attack us," he said in a statement from India. "The Patriot Act is vital to the war on terror and defending our citizens against a ruthless enemy."
But many senators who voted for the renewal said that though the bill they approved was better than the original, it fell short of offering all the civil liberties protections they had sought.
"Our support for the Patriot Act does not mean a blank check for the president," said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). "But the version of the Patriot Act we will soon reauthorize is a vast improvement over the law we passed hastily in 2001."
The vote began the denouement of a difficult chapter of partisan brinkmanship, with the two houses of Congress -- both Republican-controlled -- in sharp disagreement for months over how to protect against terrorists and, at the same time, preserve civil liberties.
It was a prized, if bittersweet, victory for the Bush administration, which won the anti-terrorism law six weeks after the attacks on New York and the Pentagon. The administration's credibility has been questioned after recent revelations that it bypassed laws, including the Patriot Act, to conduct electronic surveillance on people in the U.S. without obtaining court orders.
"In 2001, we were viciously attacked by terrorists who care nothing for American freedoms and American values," said Sen. Russell D. Feingold (D-Wis.), who led a two-month filibuster to block passage of the renewal bill. "Without freedom, we are not America. If we don't preserve our liberties, we cannot win this war, no matter how many terrorists we capture or kill."
