U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin and 20 other Congressmen proposed a bill

Wednesday that would repeal some of the USA PATRIOT Act powers that

they said threaten basic liberties.

Among Patriot Act authorities that the bill would repeal are:

secret “sneak and peak” searches without notifying property owners

of the warrant beforehand, greater access to personal and education

records, the jailing of immigrants who have not been convicted of a

crime, and the allowance of the federal government to monitor

attorney-client conversations in federal prisons without a court

order.

“While it’s important for our law enforcement officials to have

appropriate tools to protect Americans from terrorist acts, the USA

PATRIOT Act and the proposals to expand it go too far, threatening

our Constitutional liberties,” Baldwin said.

Baldwin also said checks and balances of government power are

necessary, adding that secret surveillance and searches, denial of

legal counsel, ignoring attorney-client privileges and searching

library and medical records are not necessary to protect

Americans.

However, other legislators say the Patriot Act is vital in order

to fight the war against terrorism.

“It’s helping the fight against terrorism,” U.S. Rep. Jim

Sensenbrenner’s spokesman, Jeff Lungrun, said. “If you take these

tools away from law enforcement right now, then they can’t fight

it. It will make their job protecting [Americans] more difficult

and likely to fail.”

Lungrun added that there has been a lot of “hype and

miscommunication” about the Patriot Act, but one thing to remember

is that the act passed overwhelmingly in the House of

Representatives.

With heightened terrorist threats in the U.S., Sensenbrenner,

chairman of the House Judiciary, said that now is not the time to

consider appeals of this bill.

The Patriot Act was first introduced several days after the

Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. It was rushed through Congress and passed

the House on Oct. 24, 2001 by a vote of 357 to 66. The next day it

passed the Senate by a vote of 98 to 1. Sen. Russ Feingold,

D-Wisconsin, was the only one to oppose the legislation. Pres. Bush

signed it into law on Oct. 26, 2001.

However, it has received sharp criticisms lately from both

Democrats and Republicans for its broad search-and-seizure

provisions, the main arguments of H.R. 3171.

Supporters of the bill say getting the legislation through

Congress could take a long time, but there is a strong possibility

that it will be passed. They cited recent resolutions from 170 U.S.

communities that condemned the Patriot Act.

Lungrun disagrees. He said this legislation has little chance of

passing because it has very small amounts of support by “very

liberal members.” He added that a lot of the provisions to which

the Congressmen object are “sunset,” meaning they expire in

2005.

The bill will likely be reviewed by the House Judiciary

committee, the Homeland Security committee and/or the Intelligence

committee.