[Vision2020] Status of the SAFE Act

[Tom Trail]

This is a status report from Brooke Roberts of Sen. Craig's office regarding
the SAFE Act.  This is the proposed modification to the Patriot Act.

Rep. Tom Trail

>: from <Brooke_Roberts at craig.senate.gov>
>
>You asked about the status of the SAFE Act in Congress.  As you 
>know, the legislation was introduced in both the House and Senate -- 
>they are somewhat different bills, but S.737 now has 12 cosponsors 
>and H.R.1526 has 37 cosponsors.
>
>Beyond that, the status is extremely complicated, because it does 
>not appear that either bill will be moving through the 
>normal legislative process.  That is, don't look for the SAFE Act to 
>be marked up as a stand-alone bill by a committee and then sent to 
>the full chamber for debate.  Rather, the SAFE Act will provide 
>fodder for key amendments to, and/or provisions of, PATRIOT Act 
>reauthorization. 
>
>It is widely expected that the Senate and House Judiciary Committee 
>chairmen will be introducing PATRIOT Act reauthorization bills in 
>the next couple of weeks -- but those bills will likely be very 
>different.  Since Chairman Specter was one of the SAFE Act 
>cosponsors in the last Congress, it is possible he will include some 
>SAFE Act provisions in his bill; however, that would be highly 
>unlikely to happen in the House bill.
>
>It is my understanding that the House Judiciary Committee has 
>scheduled a markup for PATRIOT Reauthorization week after next.  Our 
>allies on the Committee do not believe they have the votes to pass 
>the SAFE Act as a single amendment, so they are preparing to offer 
>each section of the SAFE Act as a separate amendment.
>
>Meanwhile, in the U.S. Senate, the Senate Intelligence Committee has 
>its own version of PATRIOT Reauthorization.  The committee began to 
>mark up its bill last week and will resume that markup next 
>week, when the Senate returns to business from Memorial Day recess. 
>We don't know if SAFE Act are contained in the bill or have been 
>offered as amendments, because it is a closed markup; we are told 
>that they are using classified information and therefore the markup 
>must be held in secret.  Only when it is finished will we be able to 
>see the details.  I do not know if the Senate Judiciary Committee 
>will demand a sequential referral and amend this bill, or go to work 
>on its own bill -- nor do I know the likely timeframe for such 
>action.
>
>

-- 
Dr. Tom Trail
International Trails
1375 Mt. View Rd.
Moscow, Id. 83843
Tel:  (208) 882-6077
Fax:  (208) 882-0896
e mail ttrail at moscow.com
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