House blocks Patriot Act provision on reading habits

WASHINGTON — In a slap at President Bush, the House voted yesterday to block the Justice Department and the FBI from using the USA Patriot Act to peek at library records and bookstore sales slips.

The House voted 238-187, despite a veto threat from Bush, to block the part of the anti-terrorism law that allows the FBI to obtain a wide variety of personal records about a suspected terrorist — including library transactions — with an order from the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, in which the government must meet a lower threshold of proof than in criminal courts.

The surprise rebuke to the White House was produced when a handful of conservative Republicans, worried about government intrusion, joined liberal Democrats concerned about personal privacy.

Under the House amendment, officials would have to get search warrants from a judge or subpoenas from a grand jury to seize records about a suspect's reading habits.

"This is a tremendous victory that restores important constitutional rights to the American people," said Rep. Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., the sponsor of the measure. He said the vote would help "rein in an administration intent on chipping away at the very civil liberties that define us as a nation."

Washington Democrats Brian Baird, Norm Dicks, Jay Inslee, Rick Larsen, Jim McDermott and Adam Smith voted for the amendment. Republicans Richard "Doc" Hastings, Cathy McMorris and Dave Reichert voted against it.

The vote came as the House debated a $57.5 billion bill covering the departments of Commerce, Justice and State. However, the Senate has yet to act on the measure, and GOP leaders often drop provisions offensive to Bush during final negotiations.

House Republican leaders are not accustomed to losing, and they did not hide their anger. One aide to a House leader referred to the victorious coalition as "the crazies on the left and the crazies on the right, meeting in the middle."

Congress is preparing to extend the Patriot Act, which was passed quickly in the emotional aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Then, Congress included a sunset provision under which 15 of the law's provisions would expire at the end of this year.

Democrats said yesterday's reversal was the first sign of growing wariness about some of the more intrusive elements of the act.

Supporters of rolling back the library and bookstore provision said that the law gives the FBI too much leeway to go on fishing expeditions on people's reading habits and that innocent people could get tagged as potential terrorists based on what they check out from a library.

"If the government suspects someone is looking up how to make atom bombs, go to a court and get a search warrant," said Rep. Jerold Nadler, D-N.Y.

Supporters of the Patriot Act countered that the rules on reading records are a potentially useful tool in finding terrorists and argued that the House was voting to make libraries havens for them. "If there are terrorists in libraries studying how to fly planes, how to put together biological weapons, how to put together chemical weapons, nuclear weapons ... we have to have an avenue through the federal court system so that we can stop the attack before it occurs," said Rep. Tom Feeney, R-Fla.

Last year, a similar provision was derailed by a 210-210 tie after several Republicans were pressured to switch votes.

In the meantime, a number of libraries have begun disposing of patrons' records quickly so they won't be available if sought under the law.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told Congress in April that the government has never used the provision to obtain library, bookstore, medical or gun-sale records.

But when asked whether the administration would agree to exclude library and medical records from the law, Gonzales demurred.

Authorities have gained access to records through voluntary cooperation from librarians, Gonzales and FBI Director Robert Mueller said.