Washington Sketch: On Patriot Act, Obama's Administration Sounds Like Bush's

Kris began by requesting renewal of the three expiring provisions of the Patriot Act. Leahy has introduced a bill that would extend the provisions while also adding a few new protections, but Kris wasn't at liberty to discuss these.

Leahy asked whether Kris would agree to an effort to stop the abuse of "national security letters," which have been used to obtain bank and medical records without warrants. "We don't have an official administration position on that element of your bill or the others," the witness informed the chairman.

Feinstein fared no better when she asked whether the Justice Department would have a problem with requiring that there be "reasonable grounds to believe that the information sought is at least relevant to an authorized investigation."

"That's a position we'd like to work through in an orderly fashion," Kris demurred. Feinstein asked another question, and Kris repeated his wish not to "get into anything classified or operational."

The other committee members got similar answers: "I would be reluctant to discuss that in an open hearing. . . . I think I should defer getting into the possibly classified details of anything here. . . . I wouldn't put it the way you've just put it, Senator." When Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) pointed out a problem with one of the Patriot Act procedures, Kris labeled the senator "a very precise and careful technical lawyer to pick up on this."

"It's not something I just invented," Whitehouse shot back.

Feingold, who has proposed legislation that would sharply curtail the Patriot Act, lectured Kris that "its quite extraordinary" to allow the government "to secretly break into Americans' homes in criminal cases, and I think some Americans might be concerned that it's been used hundreds of times in just a single year on non-terrorism cases."

"Well," the witness replied, "I don't mean to quibble with you." But he did anyway.