Text of USA Act v3.0 (final): http://www.politechbot.com/docs/usa.act.final.102401.html House debate over USA Act: http://www.politechbot.com/docs/usa.act.debate.102401.html How your House member voted: http://clerkweb.house.gov/cgi-bin/vote.exe?year=2001&rollnumber=398 Background: http://www.wartimeliberty.com/search.pl?topic=legislation --- http://www.wired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,47858,00.html USA Act Stampedes Through By Declan McCullagh (declanat_private) 2:00 a.m. Oct. 25, 2001 PDT WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Senate is set to end a month-long debate over balancing freedom and security on Thursday by granting police more surveillance power and sharply curtailing Americans' privacy. Since the House of Representatives already has voted for the anti-terrorism bill (400 KB), the widely expected Senate endorsement would send the labyrinthine legislation to President Bush for his signature later this week. Approval in both chambers -- the House voted 357-66 for the so-called USA Act on Wednesday -- is set to take place as fears of anthrax have snarled the usual course of business on Capitol Hill and temporarily shuttered most of Congress' office buildings. The clandestine process that Senate and House leaders used to usher versions of the bill through the legislative process with little opportunity for public debate drew condemnations from a minority of politicians. "The report has just come to us," said Rep. Robert Scott (D-Virginia) during the debate that began Tuesday. "It would be helpful if we would wait for some period of time so that we can at least review what we are voting on, but I guess that is not going to stop us, so here we are." [...] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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