Here's what's happening right now (turn on CSPAN): 1. The House Judiciary committee approved the "PATRIOT Act" 36-0, with a two-year expiration date for wiretapping: http://www.politechbot.com/p-02614.html 2. The Senate voted last night 96-1 for the USA Act without Sen. Feingold's privacy amendments: http://www.politechbot.com/p-02651.html 3. The House Rules committee met early this morning to set a rule that specified what bill would go to the floor: http://www.house.gov/rules/107rule2975.htm 4. According to the speaker's office, the bill is the "base Senate text" of the USA Act with five or six changes that Rep. Conyers had wanted. One of those is that the wiretap sections expire in December 2004 -- unless the president decides it is in the "national interest" to continue them, which would expire them in December 2006. 4. The House voted 211-205 midday today (along party lines) on a preliminary procedural step allowing the bill to be considered. 5. Now they're about to vote on the rule. The rule does not allow amendments, just provides for an up-or-down vote on the USA Act v2.0. CSPAN is carrying this debate. 5. When the House approves the USA Act v2.0 -- I say "when" because I think it's very likely -- it'll be sent back to the Senate for approval. Because the changes (besides the expiration date) are minor, the Senate may vote for it unchanged and send it to the president, something Rep. Senenbrenner predicts will happen. 6. That means no conference committee is necessary. 7. You can find the USA Act v2.0 here: http://www.house.gov/rules/sensen_028.pdf (525 KB) http://www.well.com/user/declan/sep11/usa.act.v2.0.101201.pdf (a mirror site) -Declan ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- End forwarded message -----