Hastert Backs Deal on Patriot Act

Legislation to renew the Patriot Act was cleared for final congressional passage Friday when House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) gave his approval to a day-old compromise between the White House and Senate Republicans.

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) also indicated he would vote for the bill when it came to a vote, possibly next week.

The legislation gives federal agents expanded powers to investigate suspected terrorists in the U.S., and the Bush administration has said it is one of the key weapons in the war on terrorism.

“I think they [the changes in the bill] were enough to make sure we can protect the American people,” Hastert told reporters in Cambridge, Md., speaking of three revisions that the White House and Senate GOP holdouts announced Thursday.

The House “should move forward with it as soon as the Senate” acts, he said. A short-term extension of the measure expires March 10.

Passage of the bill was stalled late last year when four Senate Republicans joined Democrats in saying that it shortchanged civil liberties protections in the name of the war on terrorism.

Reid’s spokesman, Jim Manley, said the Nevada Democrat intended to vote for the bill. The Senate’s second-ranking Democrat, Sen. Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, also supports it, as does Judiciary Committee member Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).

Changes made would have to be approved by the House, but Sen. Larry E. Craig (R-Idaho), another negotiator, said that with the Senate and the White House in concert, he thought the House would go along. He said he had consulted with House Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.). “There will be no additional negotiations,” Craig said.

The changes, worked out over several weeks of talks, specifically with the office of White House Counsel Harriet E. Miers, covered three main areas:

* Under the first change, recipients of court-approved subpoenas for information in terrorist probes would have the right to challenge a requirement that they refrain from telling anyone.

* The second change removes a requirement that an individual who consults a lawyer about a national security letter -- a demand for records issued by administrators -- give the FBI the attorney’s name.

* The third change clarifies that most libraries are not subject to national security letter demands for information about suspected terrorists.