June 24, 2005

House Approves Patriot-Act Measure

By SCOTT CARLSON

Despite the threat of a veto from President Bush, the U.S. House of Representatives approved an amendment last week intended to limit law-enforcement officers' ability to review the lending records of libraries under the USA Patriot Act.

The measure, called the Freedom to Read Amendment, passed with a comfortable margin, 238 to 187, as part of a spending bill for science and the Departments of Justice, State, and other agencies. It would prohibit law-enforcement officers from using