Bush Signs Anti-Terror Bill, Calls It ‘Essential Step’

President Bush signed legislation Friday that expands the reach of law enforcement authorities trying to track terrorists, calling the measure “an essential step in defeating terrorism, while protecting the constitutional rights of all Americans.”

The measure was approved Thursday by the Senate on a 98-1 vote, and by a 356-66 vote in the House a day earlier.

Speaking in the White House East Room to an audience of Cabinet officials, senior members of Congress and law enforcement officers, Bush cast the measure as urgently needed to bring legal provisions in line with emerging technology available to terrorists.

“We’re dealing with terrorists who operate by highly sophisticated methods and technologies, some of which were not even available when our existing laws were written,” he said.

The measure moved with rare speed through Congress in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Presenting the need as extraordinary, Bush said: “We’ve seen the enemy, and the murder of thousands of innocent, unsuspecting people. They recognize no barrier of morality. They have no conscience. The terrorists cannot be reasoned with. Witness the recent anthrax attacks through our Postal Service.”

Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft pledged to use the powers to pursue terrorist suspects relentlessly.

“Let the terrorists be warned,” he said in a speech to the nation’s mayors. “If you overstay your visas even by one day, we will arrest you; if you violate a local law, we will . . . work to make sure that you are put in jail and be kept in custody as long as possible.”

The measure expands the government’s opportunities to conduct wiretaps, broadens the list of terrorism-related crimes, provides subpoena power to obtain credit card and bank account information and loosens restrictions on sharing information among law enforcement agencies.

Some of the provisions that have been updated, Bush said, date to the rotary phone era.

Bush also noted “the courage the Postal Service has shown during these difficult times.”

“I want to assure postal workers that our government is testing more than 200 postal facilities along the entire Eastern corridor that may have been impacted,” Bush said. “And we will move quickly to treat and protect workers where positive exposures are found.”