Peninsula Daily News news services
WASHINGTON — This week, both the Senate and House of Representatives will take up a bill to renew certain sections of the USA Patriot Act.
The law, enacted after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, has been criticized by civil libertarians as well as conservatives as an undue overreach of governmental authority into private affairs.
At issue are three segments of the law that have come under scrutiny over concerns about invasion of privacy, including a provision that allows authorities to investigate any records pertaining to terrorism suspects.
Two other provisions up for renewal are the so-called roving wiretap, which allows authorities to continue surveillance on suspects as they switch phones or locations, and the “lone wolf” provision, which allows surveillance of foreigners without known ties to terrorist groups.
All procedures must be approved by court orders.
Republicans in the House and Senate have pressed for a permanent extension of the expiring provisions, which Democrats largely oppose.
The Obama administration had sought a two-year extension.
Congressional leaders reached an agreement late Thursday to vote on legislation that would continue the expiring provisions through 2015.
The Senate is expected to take a test vote today, with House votes likely later in the week before the scheduled expiration on Friday.
Contact our legislators
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“Eye on Congress” is published in the Peninsula Daily News every Monday when Congress is in session about activities, roll call votes and legislation in the House and Senate.
The North Olympic Peninsula’s legislators in Washington, D.C., are Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Mountlake Terrace), Sen. Patty Murray (D-Bothell) and Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Belfair).
Contact information — The address for Cantwell and Murray is U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C. 20510; Dicks, U.S. House, Washington, D.C. 20515.
Phone Cantwell at 202-224-3441 (fax, 202-228-0514); Murray, 202-224-2621 (fax, 202-224-0238); Dicks, 800-947-6676 (fax, 202-226-1176).
Email via their websites: cantwell.senate.gov; murray.senate.gov; house.gov/dicks.
Dicks’ North Olympic Peninsula office is at 332 E. Fifth St., Port Angeles, WA 98362.
It is open from 9 a.m. to noon Tuesdays and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Thursdays and by appointment.
It is staffed by Judith Morris, 360-452-3370 (fax: 360-452-3502).
State legislators
Jefferson and Clallam counties are represented in the part-time state Legislature by Rep. Kevin Van De Wege, D-Sequim, the House majority whip; Rep. Steve Tharinger, D-Sequim; and Sen. Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam.
Write Van De Wege and Tharinger at P.O. Box 40600 (Hargrove at P.O. Box 40424), Olympia, WA 98504; email them at vandewege.kevin@leg.wa.gov; tharinger.steve@leg.wa.gov; hargrove.jim@leg.wa.gov.
Or you can call the Legislative Hot Line, 800-562-6000, from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday (closed on holidays and from noon to 1 p.m.) and leave a detailed message, which will be emailed to Van De Wege, Tharinger or Hargrove, or to all three.
Links to other state officials: secstate.wa.gov/elections/elected_officials.aspx.
Learn more
Websites following our state and national legislators:
■ Followthemoney.org — Campaign donors by industry, ZIP code and more
■ Vote-Smart.org — How special interest groups rate legislators on the issues.
How they voted
■ OIL-INDUSTRY TAX BREAKS: Voting 52 for and 48 against, the Senate on Tuesday failed to reach 60 votes needed to advance a Democratic-sponsored bill (S 940) to end several tax breaks for the five largest oil and gas companies, with the savings of $21 billion over 10 years applied to deficit reduction.
The bill would stop BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil and Shell from taking advantage of a deduction originally designed to spur exports by U.S. manufacturing firms, not oil companies.
This would save the Treasury $13 billion over 10 years.
A yes vote was to pass the bill.
Cantwell and Murray voted yes.
■ EXPEDITED OIL DRILLING: Voting 42 for and 57 against, the Senate on Wednesday defeated a GOP-sponsored bill (S 953) requiring the Department of the Interior to act within 60 days on several dozen applications for deepwater oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.
Many of these applications have been put on hold in response to last year’s BP-Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the gulf.
The bill also sets deadlines for the administration to auction certain Outer Continental Shelf leases in the gulf and off the Atlantic Coast that have been delayed because of the BP spill.
Additionally, the bill requires lawsuits challenging federal lease sales in the gulf to be filed in district courts in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.
The bill requires such suits to be filed within 60 days of the federal action.
A yes vote was to advance the bill.
Cantwell and Murray voted no.
■ GOP JUDICIAL FILIBUSTER: Voting 52 for and 43 against, the Senate on Thursday failed to reach 60 votes needed to end a GOP filibuster against the nomination of Goodwin Liu as a judge on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is based in San Francisco.
This was the first defeat of one of President Obama’s judicial nominees.
Liu, 40, the son of Taiwanese immigrants, is a law professor at the University of California at Berkeley and former clerk to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Critics portrayed him as an inexperienced ideologue who lacks judicial temperament, while backers noted qualifications such as the American Bar Association’s highest rating for a judicial nominee.
A yes vote was to advance the nomination.
Cantwell and Murray voted yes.
