Patriot Act Reauthorization

From the New York Times: "The House voted Thursday to extend permanently virtually all the major antiterrorism provisions of the USA Patriot Act after beating back efforts by Democrats and some Republicans to impose new restrictions on the government's power to eavesdrop, conduct secret searches and demand library records.

"The legislation, approved 257 to 171, would make permanent 14 of the 16 provisions in the law that were set to expire at the end of this year. The remaining two provisions - giving the government the power to demand business and library records and to conduct roving wiretaps - would have to be reconsidered by Congress in 10 years."

You can check the status of H.R. 3199 through THOMAS. The website also allows you to read amendments to the bill, reports, floor debates (through the Congressional Record--the "Congressional Actions" links provide page numbers), and roll call vote results. More relevant links for this bill follow:

Text as reported in the House

House Report 109-74 Part 1 and Part 2

House Judiciary Committee Hearings
April 6 - Review (PDF transcript)
April 14 - Use of Section 218
April 19 - Sections 203(B) and (D), Information Sharing (PDF transcript)
April 21 - Technology issues (PDF transcript)
April 26 and April 28 - Sections on FISA (PDF transcript)
April 28 - Section 218, Foreign Intelligence Information (PDF transcript)
May 3 - Sections 201, 202, 213, and 223, Wiretaps and delayed notice (PDF transcript)
May 5 - Section 212, Emergency disclosure (PDF transcript)
May 10 - Section 805, Prohibition of material support (PDF transcript)
May 26 - Sections 505 and 804 (PDF transcript)
June 8 and June 10 - Reauthorization (PDF transcript)

The passage of this bill comes more than a month after the passage of Representative Bernie Sanders' House Amendment 280 which was attached to H.R. 2862, the Science, State, Justice, Commerce, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006. The amendment prohibits "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)."

The Senate is working on its own version of a Patriot Act reauthorization bill -- S. 1389. The Summary and Status page will provide updates and links to the current text of the bill.

Sources: "House Votes for a Permanent Patriot Act." New York Times July 22, 2005.