Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Why the Hell Did Democrats Just Extend the Patriot Act?

In a break from televised hearings, the House of Representatives voted to fund the government through December 20.

Most Popular A Charter School Gets Canceled for Wanting to Teach Indigenous History Elizabeth Warren Retreats From Medicare for All Climate Change's Great Lithium Problem The Fall of Nate Silver There's Only One Way the Patrick and Bloomberg Campaigns Make Sense That's all well and good, except that Democratic leaders had slipped something else into the bill: a three-month extension of the Patriot Act, the post-9/11 law that gave the federal government sweeping surveillance and search powers and circumvented traditional law-enforcement rules.

"It's surreal," Representative Justin Amash told me on Tuesday, just before the vote.

Republicans have "Decried FISA abuse" against the president and his aides, he said, referring to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, "And Democrats have highlighted Trump's abuse of his executive powers, yet they're teaming up to extend the administration's authority to warrantlessly gather data on Americans." By tucking the measure into a must-pass bill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi forced many members who oppose the Patriot Act to vote in favor of its extension.

Just 10 Democrats defied the leadership to vote against the resolution, including Tlaib, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, and Ilhan Omar.

The only person in CPC leadership to vote against the bill was Omar.

"In my ideal world, we wouldn't have the Patriot Act. Period," Jayapal said, "But that's not where we are. So we've got to fix these things, and they need to be substantive, real changes. That's what we're working on."

https://newrepublic.com/article/155793/hell-democrats-just-extend-patriot-act?utm_content=bufferf2014&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer&fbclid=IwAR03qw5IR7QwXGMRGHDMzLaARsW72yXhaaxlYnh5uD1DIdy1HdCCfdjzxfk

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