Update: Apparently the deal isn’t as solid as previously reported. Several lawmakers, from both parties, demanded today that further changes be made to the Patriot Act — or they’ll block reauthorization.
Negotiations over the future of the Patriot Act were supposed to be about improving some of the law’s more troublesome provisions. So, when lawmakers announced that they’d reached a deal that would satisfy enough of Congress to move the bill forward, it sounded like the Patriot Act would, at a minimum, be improved.
But that’s not what happened at all. Despite bi-partisan calls for scaling at least some the law back, Republican leaders struck a deal that hardly touches the original language.
[T]he agreement would leave intact some of the most controversial provisions of the anti-terrorism law, such as government access to library and bookstore records in terrorism probes, and would extend only limited new rights to the targets of such searches.
The deal would make permanent 14 Patriot Act provisions that were set to expire at the end of the year. Three other measures — including one allowing law enforcement agents access to bookstore and public library records — would be extended for seven years, or three years longer than the Senate had agreed to. The House initially extended the provisions for 10 years but later voted to accept the Senate’s four-year extension.
Also extended for seven years is a provision allowing roving wiretaps that follow an individual who may use multiple means of communication, rather than targeting a single phone line. The agreement also extends for seven years a provision of a separate intelligence law passed last year that allows federal investigators to track an individual not connected to a foreign government but suspected of operating as a “lone wolf” terrorist.
So, was there any good news for those concerned about civil liberties? Some, but not much.
Negotiators refused to back the administration’s request for administrative subpoenas, which would have expanded the government’s power to subpoena records without the approval of a judge or grand jury in terrorism investigations. […]
While the government would retain access to library, bookstore and business records, the FBI would face new limits on the retention and dissemination of such information.
The compromise also places new controls on the FBI’s use of “national security letters,” which require companies to provide private information about their customers and to keep the request secret. The Patriot Act allowed the FBI to use such letters on any citizen it deemed relevant to a national security investigation, even if the target is not suspected of any wrong-doing.
It’s that last point that probably warrants the most attention. Recent coverage of these NSLs highlighted the fact that the Patriot Act empowered the FBI to obtain secret information about Americans, whether you’re suspected of wrongdoing or not, while keeping the request secret, literally forever, and without the consent (or even knowledge of) a judge.
Now, under the new “compromise,” the FBI would have to disclose the number of some of its secret requests.
I feel more protected against government abuse already.