Terrorist Watchlist Watch

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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?