Byrd Regrets Vote for USA Patriot Act

[Eugene]

Byrd Regrets Vote for USA Patriot Act

By LAURIE KELLMAN
The Associated Press
Tuesday, February 28, 2006; 3:30 AM

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Robert Byrd, the dean of the Senate and its resident constitutional expert,
counts only a few regrets in his 48-year Senate career: filibustering the 1964 Civil Rights Act,
voting to expand the Vietnam War, deregulating airlines.

Add to the list a new one from this century: supporting the anti-terror USA Patriot Act
after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

"The original Patriot Act is a case study in the perils of speed, herd instinct and lack
of vigilance when it comes to legislating in times of crisis," the West Virginia Democrat
said Monday on the eve of the Senate's final votes on its renewal. "The Congress was stampeded,
and the values of freedom, justice and equality received a trampling in the headlong rush."

This week as he embarks on a re-election campaign for a record ninth term, Byrd, 88, will
vote "no" on renewing 16 major provisions of the act due to expire March 10. He argues that even
with new privacy protections added this year by the Bush administration and its allies, the law
has given the government too much power to pry.

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Full article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/28/AR2006022800132.html