House Judiciary Committee Approves Strong PATRIOT Act Reform

In a 16-10 party-line vote on Nov. 5, the House Committee on the Judiciary approved H.R. 3845, the USA PATRIOT Amendments Act of 2009. Among the most touted of the reforms provided by the bill, H.R. 3845 would permit the so-called “lone wolf” provision to sunset. This authority removed the requirement that an individual needed to be an agent of a foreign power to be placed under surveillance by intelligence officials and permitted surveillance of individuals with a much lower evidentiary threshold than allowed under criminal surveillance procedures. H.R. 3845 also restricts the use of national security letters. Under current law, intelligence agencies have few restrictions on the use of NSLs, and in numerous cases, they overuse the authority. An FBI inspector general report in 2007 “found that the FBI used NSLs in violation of applicable NSL statutes, Attorney General Guidelines, and internal FBI policies.” The reform provisions seek to create greater judicial scrutiny of NSL use, as the relevant agency would need to demonstrate to a judge the connection to foreign actors, as well as the need for a gag order, prior to issuing the NSL. In other reform provisions, the legislation would require the government demonstrate to a judge that the target of a roving wiretap is a single person in order to obtain a warrant. An even stricter evidentiary standard is mandated to obtain library and bookstore records. The roving wiretap and records seizure authorities are set to expire at the end of 2013 rather than in 2009...read more