S.149: A bill to extend the expiring provisions of the USA PATRIOT Improvement

From: clevelandleader.com With permission.

Patriot Act's Wiretapping &amp; FISA Provisions Up for Renewal this Month By Julie Kent. Published on 01/25/2011 - 12:11pm

With George W. Bush out of the White House, talks about the Patriot Act have significantly died down. Which is why it's no surprise that few people even know that at the end of this month two controversial provisions of the Patriot Act - one that authorizes "roving" wiretapping and another that allows the government to pull all kinds of records and electronic communications from U.S. citizens - are set to expire.

Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, knew these provisions were expiring and has already introduced legislation that would simply extend them for another year.

That's the exact same thing that happened a year ago when the provisions expired in December 2009. They were renewed for another year at the end of last February.

It's not clear if anyone will put up a fight this go around. Rogers doesn't yet have any sponsors yet, but last February even Democrats in both the House and Senate overwhelming voted in favor of extending it another year.

The provisions are Section 206 and Section 215 of the 2005 Patriot Act renewal. Section 206 allows authorities to wiretap multiple phones of one person (aka "roving surveillance") with court approval. Section 215 allows authorities to subpoena all kinds of records under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which also prohibits those who receive an order to turn over the records from telling anyone about the subpoena, including the person's whose information they are turning over. This includes bank statements, Internet records, library records, and so on.

The American Civil Liberties Union, of course, is opposed to these provisions. But Congress hasn't shown much interest in getting rid of them, so they're likely to be renewed again without much of a fight.