WASHINGTON - February 8, 2011 - A plan that would have seen the House of Representatives extend controversial provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act with little debate failed Tuesday night, as a group of Republicans joined a majority of Democrats in voting no.
The House voted 277 to 148 for the USA PATRIOT Act extension - 23 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed to pass it under a procedure that allows bills that aren't controversial to pass quickly.
But it appears the bill was controversial enough to convince some two dozen Tea Party-backed Republican freshmen to join a majority of Democrats in voting against it, The Hill reported.
The measure is now expected to return to the House floor for a regular vote that would require a simple majority to pass. If House members vote then as they did Tuesday, the extension will easily pass.
At issue were three core measures in the USA PATRIOT Act adopted in the aftermath of the events of September 11, 2001, to fill what the government complained were gaps in its abilities to track and catch extremists.
The provisions, which expire at month's end, allow authorities to use roving wiretaps to track an individual on several telephones, track a non-U.S. national suspected of being a "lone-wolf" terrorist not tied to an extremist group, and to seize personal or business records seen as critical to an investigation.
The White House said in a statement that it "strongly supports extension of three critical authorities that our nation's intelligence and law enforcement agencies need to protect our national security."
