In an effort to calm the public and give law enforcement agencies more power to curb terrorism in the United States, both the Senate and House of Representatives have rushed the voting processes for their versions of the Anti-Terrorism Bill.

The Anti-Terrorism Bill, was passed Friday with a House vote of 337-79 without much consideration for debate on the impregnability of civil liberties.

Both bills will grant law enforcement agencies increased powers of surveillance and the ability to share information with each other. They also will allow “roving wiretaps,” which would permit intelligence agencies to monitor phone calls made by a suspect from multiple phone lines, and will simplify the monitoring of phone, e-mail and Internet use. Secret Grand Jury information may be used against suspected terrorists. Both bills also will increase penalties for terrorists as well as security along the U.S.-Canadian border.

The House and Senate nixed an administrative proposal to force non-citizens to be jailed indefinitely without a trial if they are suspected of being involved in a terrorist act and replaced it with limited detention time of seven days, after which suspects would have to be charged or released.

As opposed to the Senate Bill, the House Bill offers a sunset clause, allowing for electronic surveillance provisions to expire after three years, which may be renewed by the president to extend for an additional two years.

These hastily expedited bills prove the urgency to resolve fears shared by Americans and a changed Congress. Many provisions in the bills were asked for by prosecutors for years but were rejected by Congress because they were “overly intrusive and possibly unconstitutional,” according to an Oct. 13 Washington Post online article. Congressional leaders seem too ardent to pass the bill, folding under the pressure of the FBI, CIA and President Bush, who applauded the House’s quick take on the bill. “The House and Senate Bills are virtually identical. I urge the Congress to quickly get the bill to my desk,” Bush said. “We must strengthen the hand of law enforcement to help safeguard America and prevent future attacks & and we must do it now.”

The Senate’s bill came straight to the floor without passing through the hands of committees, said Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., the only one to oppose the Senate Bill which passed with a vote of 96-1.

Being in the midst of immediate, indiscriminate danger necessitates extensive actions by our law enforcement agencies. However, the democratic process is being compromised in the face of a country frightened and in desperate need of security. Civil liberties aren’t fully considered when they can’t even be debated on the House or Senate floor.

The sunset clause is the only safeguard of our rights, making the bill a temporary solution to help in the fight against terrorism. However, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and a member of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, believes that an expiration date on the bill makes no sense, according to an editorial he wrote in the Oct. 12 issue of USA Today. “Terrorism is not a passing threat,” he wrote. “We must be prepared for the long haul.”

Terrorism will not disappear any time soon. But an anti-terrorism bill that rushes through Congress at least needs an expiration date. Abuse of power may appear down the line, as evident through the abuses of power by law enforcement agencies while attempting to aid the War on Drugs and to curb organized crime. A cut-off date would allow for the revision of the bill as well as a look at its effectiveness.

If the sunset clause doesn’t get approved by President Bush, we’ll be forced to drink spoiled milk for years to come.