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<div>This is a status report from Brooke Roberts of Sen. Craig's
office regarding</div>
<div>the SAFE Act. This is the proposed modification to the
Patriot Act.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Rep. Tom Trail</div>
<div><br></div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>: from
<Brooke_Roberts@craig.senate.gov></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><font face="Arial" size="-1">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.</font></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite> </blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><font face="Arial" size="-1">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. </font></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite> </blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><font face="Arial" size="-1">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.</font></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite> </blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><font face="Arial" size="-1">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.</font></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite> </blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><font face="Arial" size="-1">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.</font></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite> </blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite> </blockquote>
<div><br></div>
<div>-- <br>
Dr. Tom Trail<br>
International Trails<br>
1375 Mt. View Rd.<br>
Moscow, Id. 83843<br>
Tel: (208) 882-6077<br>
Fax: (208) 882-0896<br>
e mail ttrail@moscow.com</div>
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