House Panel Feuds Over PATRIOT Act
The stage is set for a potentially raucous day in the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday as Democrats try to push legislation to modify and reauthorize expiring portions of the USA PATRIOT Act, CongressDaily's AM Edition reported. They are also scheduled to mark up a separate bill to provide courts with specific standards for handling state-secrets claims by the government in civil lawsuits.
House Judiciary ranking member Lamar Smith and other Republicans have unsuccessfully argued that the PATRIOT Act bill introduced two weeks ago by Chairman John Conyers with House Judiciary Constitution Subcommittee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., and Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security Subcommittee Chairman Bobby Scott, D-Va., deserves a hearing before it is teed up for a vote.
Smith called the lack of a hearing an "unwarranted departure" from the regular committee process. He chaired a GOP briefing on the bill Tuesday. Smith said Democrats insist on making unnecessary changes to the law that could undermine law enforcement. The Obama administration backed a full reauthorization of the expiring provisions but said it remained open to suggestions for modifications.
Read the full CongressDaily story here (subscription required) and read more coverage in Thursday's AM Edition.
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