Yesterday, I wrote about the roll call for the Amash-Conyers amendment, which would have curbed the blanket surveillance powers of the NSA. Despite strong White House opposition and energized whipping by the party leadership on both sides, the amendment managed to get 205 votes, failing very narrowly. Had seven representatives changed their vote, the final vote would have gone from 205-217 to 212-210, a slim victory. 12 representatives did not show up. Had then all shown up and voted for the amendment (unlikely as that would be), it would have tied.

I wanted to do a companion diary to highlight the Democrats who have voted against the PATRIOT Act just two years ago but have now warmed up to unchecked, blanket surveillance.

On February 14, 2011, the House voted to extend the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005 and Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 by a vote of 275 to 144. (What a great Valentine's Day present!) The title of the bill in the clerk's office was the following:



To extend expiring provisions of the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005 and Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 relating to access to business records, individual terrorists as agents of foreign powers, and roving wiretaps until December 8, 2011

210 Republicans and 65 Democrats voted for it. 117 Democrats and 27 Republicans voted against it.

17 of those 117 Democrats who opposed the PATRIOT Act then but embraced it with open arms yesterday. Some notable names among them are party leaders Nancy Pelosi, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and Steve Israel and Progressive Caucus vice chairs Jan Schakowsky and Sheila Jackson Lee.

Here are the 17:

Rob Andrews (NJ-01)

Eliot Engel (NY-16)

Al Green (TX-09)

Luis Gutiérrez (IL-04)

Colleen Hanabusa (HI-01)

Brian Higgins (NY-26)

Rubén Hinojosa (TX-15)

Steve Israel (NY-03)

Sheila Jackson Lee (TX-18)

Eddie Johnson (TX-30)

Marcy Kaptur (OH-09)

Rick Larsen (WA-02)

Nancy Pelosi (CA-12)

Mike Quigley (IL-05)

Jan Schakowsky (IL-09)

Mike Thompson (CA-05)

Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-23)

And, in case you're interested, here are the Republicans who stayed consistent in their opposition to the PATRIOT Act between 2011 and 2013. This is a mix of ideological anti-statists (Amash, Labrador) and comparative moderates (e.g. Gibson, Fitzpatrick, and Jones).

Justin Amash (MI-03)

Rob Bishop (UT-01)

Paul Broun (GA-10)

John Duncan (TN-02)

Mike Fitzpatrick (PA-08)

Chris Gibson (NY-19)

Tom Graves (GA-14)

Randy Hultgren (IL-14)

Walter Jones (NC-03)

Jack Kingston (GA-01)

Raul Labrador (ID-01)

Kenny Marchant (TX-24)

Tom McClintock (CA-04)

Dana Rohrabacher (CA-48)

David Schweikert (AZ-06)

Don Young (AK)

All of the other Republicans among the 94 to vote for Amash-Conyers are either new opponents of the broadness of the PATRIOT Act or are just new members of Congress.

Two prior Republican opponents flipped their votes: Richard Hanna (NY-22) and Rob Woodall (GA-02).