Make the necessary fixes

Dallas Morning News: The clock is ticking toward a Feb. 3 deadline for Congress to renew the Patriot Act.
If this sounds familiar, it should. The same clock ticked a month ago toward a Dec. 31 deadline before Congress punted the decision. And lawmakers may very well punt again, contending that there are too many other priorities -- including the confirmation of Judge Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court -- for them to resolve differences between the House and Senate versions.
Folks, wise up. Put aside the political posturing. It doesn't take much to fix the Patriot Act -- just the willingness to make simple changes.
Art of compromise
Take, for instance, the current Patriot Act provision that allows the government to conduct sneak-and-peek searches of homes and businesses without ever giving notice of the search. The differences in the House and Senate legislation are minuscule, and neither gives advance warning. The House leadership and the president would delay notification to within 30 days of the search. The Senate would delay notification not more than seven days unless the government can provide a legitimate law-enforcement reason for a longer delay. If all sides agree that eventual notification is necessary, then why can't they compromise on the time limit?
Now let's take another contentious point, the provision that permits the government to use a secret court order to obtain copies of private medical, financial, educational and other records without connecting a person to terrorism. From our perspective, it is not too much to require the government to show how a person is tied to terrorism. And the same standard should apply to National Security Letters, which have turned into an all-too-easy way for the government to skirt the checks and balances that going to a court provides. And finally, lawmakers must jettison provisions that have little to do with terrorism, such as new anti-drug policies and other changes to death penalty law, that are stuffed in the House-passed proposal.
Civil liberties aren't absolute, either in peace or war. Nor are government powers.