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To Chants of “Shame, Shame,” GOP Backs Patriot Act

HeadlineJul 09, 2004

The Republican-backed House voted Thursday to preserve a provision of the Patriot Act that allows the government to secretly subpoena information about citizen’s reading habits at libraries and book stores. President Bush had threatened to veto any rollback in the Patriot Act. As the House’s normal 15-minute time limit on votes expired, the House appeared to be set to rewrite portions of the Patriot Act to protect the privacy of library patrons. But the Republican leadership kept the vote open for an additional 20 minutes. Democratic legislators chanted “Shame Shame Shame” as Republicans were seen being pressured to switch their votes. By the end 10 Republicans did just that. And when the vote was finally tallied the count was 210 to 210. Since a majority was needed, the effort to revise the Patriot Act failed. Republican Congressman C.L. Butch Otter of Idaho said QUOTE “You win some, and some get stolen.” Cotter had co-sponsored the change in the Patriot Act with Independent Congressman Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

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