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TERRORIST WATCHLIST WATCH….This is good news, I think:

The House passed a bill Tuesday aimed at helping people who have been misidentified as terrorists clear their names from government watch lists and databases.

The bill (HR 559), sponsored by Yvette D. Clarke , D-N.Y., passed by a vote of 413-3….“This is a good bill,” said Pete Olson , R-Texas. “This is a bipartisan bill.”

It’s always been sort of Kafkaesque that a gigantic security bureaucracy could stick your name on a terrorist watchlist and basically give you no way to get it off. It’s long past time for Congress to address this.

But here’s what I want to know: if this bill passed 413-3, what took so long? Did Republicans only decide they could afford to support it once George Bush was out of office? Or what?

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And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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