USA PATRIOT Act Reauthorization Looks Likely - But It's Not Over Yet (updated 11/17)

By Andrew Cochran

Sixteen provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act (technically an acronym for the "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism") expire at the end of 2005, and the reauthorization process appears to be grinding forward. The latest proposal includes a limit of seven years for most of the controversial provisions, longer than the four years suggested by a non-binding resolution passed by the U.S. House last week, but still shorter than the 10 years proposed by the Administration. Two of the provisions under strenuous debate by Congressional conferees and staff are Section 215, which enables the accessing of business and library records on suspects, and the "lone wolf" provision enacted by the 2004 Intel Reform & Terrorist Prevention Act (availabe in the Counterterrorism Library), which allows monitoring of foreigners who are suspected of terrorism but who may not be directly associated with a terrorist organization. The draft would make it tougher for the FBI to issue "national security letters," which require businesses to provide information about a person without informing that person. The draft also changes the current federal funding formula for first responders; I assume that provision is included to make the bill more attractive to recalcitrant lawmakers and those worried about their vote on this controversial bill.

The reporter in the "Washington Post" article linked above termed the compromise "another significant setback for the weakened Bush administration," but I strenuously disagree based on criticisms of the Act over the past 2 years. A very senior GOP House Member, who was critical to the passage of the first PATRIOT Act in 2001, told me point-blank last year that it would not have passed at all in 2004. So I would consider passage of this bill one of the most impressive legislative accomplishments of the session. UPDATE 11/17: A bipartisan group of 6 Senators is threatening to block enactment of the conference bill, because provisions added by the Senate with respect to search warrants and judicial review of requests to search certain records.

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