Chairman Patrick Leahy, a Democrat and a chief sponsor of the bill to extend the provisions another four years while bolstering protection of legal rights, said, "I remain mindful of our responsibility to ensure both security and liberty." "We have taken the (Obama) administration up on its offer to work with us to 'provide additional protection for the privacy of law-abiding Americans' and have done so without undermining the operational effectiveness of the counterterrorism tools" Leahy said. But liberal critics complained that the added protections were inadequate, and conservative foes charged that the changes would undermine investigative efforts. Full Article at Reuters