The Only Eight Senators Who Think Extending The Patriot Act Deserves More Discussion

by Mike Masnick, Techdirt
May. 24, 2011

Tragically, this list is way too small, but as expected, the Senate has moved much closer to extending some controversial spying provisions of the Patriot Act, without any modifications or new oversight. As we noted when the "deal" was brokered, the Senate leadership (of both parties) hoped to avoid having to actually debate the issue, and the Senate has now voted to skip over any such debate by an overwhelming margin: 74-8. Only eight Senators voted against this move, and they deserve to be highlighted for actually standing up for American principles against over aggressive government surveillance:

Max Baucus (Montana)
Mark Begich (Alaska)
Dean Heller (Nevada)
Jeff Merkley (Oregon)
Lisa Murkowski (Alaska)
Rand Paul (Kentucky)
Bernie Sanders (Vermont)
Jon Tester (Montana)

It's really unfortunate that this list is so small. While it does appear that some who voted in favor of cloture are still going to try to introduce amendments that might limit the extensions (but not the overall clauses), it's a real shame that so many of our elected officials don't seem to want to even bother discussing what's at stake.