Bills Extend Patriot Provision

Before Congress leaves Washington for its annual recess next month, both the House and the Senate are expected to vote to renew police powers that were granted in the 2001 Patriot Act and are scheduled to expire at the end of the year.

Among the most controversial provisions up for renewal is the FBI's power to demand sensitive information on American citizens from businesses with only an order issued under the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Separate bills advancing in the House and Senate extend this provision—Section 215 of the Patriot Act—with modifications. A bill approved behind closed doors by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence would make the power permanent and also make it even easier for the government to demand business records by authorizing the FBI to write its own search orders.

However, members of the House demonstrated last week that they are reluctant to give the FBI such permanent powers and are demanding a future expiration, or sunset, date if the police powers are renewed.

"This sunset is dealing with very sensitive—as I've said before—powers that were given [to the] government that pose a potential threat to the liberties that we all hold dear," Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said last week in arguing for inclusion of an expiration date in a bill sponsored by Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. "What is the danger of a sunset? That it makes us do a little more work? So what? This kind of thing ought to be kept front and center."

Read the rest of this eWEEK story: "Bills Extend Patriot Provision"

Copyright © 2005 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in ExtremeTech.