news flash on libraries and patriot act - Sanders' amendment passes

From Bernie Sanders' site:

Sanders Passes Critical Legislation to Amend Patriot Act and Protect Americans’ Reading Records   

Washington, DC—Congressman Sanders today led a tri-partisan coalition in restoring Americans’ constitutionally guaranteed right to read and access information without governmental intrusion or monitoring. With 199 Democrats, 38 Republicans and one Independent (Sanders) voting in support, the House passed Congressman Sanders legislation to amend Section 215 of the Patriot Act in order to keep the federal government from accessing Americans’ reading records without a traditional search warrant.

Can someone tell me how many are needed to stop a presidential veto?

Comments

[Heather]

From http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:HR02862:@@@S:

"6/15/2005 3:31pm: H.AMDT.280 Amendment (A033) offered by Mr. Sanders. (consideration: CR H4534-4542, H4551; text: CR H4534) An amendment numbered 15 printed in the Congressional Record to prohibit funds in the bill from being used to implement provisions of Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act which permits searches of library circulation records, library patron lists, book sales records, or book customer lists under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)."

[garym]

There's a lot of sloppily written news on that vote going around today. The ACLU's press release has more accurate information than most. As I understand it (not being a lawyer), the bill doesn't change what law enforcement agencies can legally do under Section 215, except by not allowing them to spend money to do it. This seems to say that a library or bookstore presented with an FBI order would still have to comply with it, even though it should be theoretically impossible to obtain such an order.

[Susan Nevelow Mart]

This is a great start. To prevent a presidential veto, or make it politically unlikely, you would have to have over a two-thirds majority. It takes a two-third majority of the members present (assuming a quorum) of both the Senate and the House to overcome a veto. If everyone was present, since there are 434 members of the House, it would take 287 votes in the House. Since there are 100 members of the Senate, it would take 67 votes in the Senate. However, not everyone is usually present, so the actual numbers would vary.