House to take up Patriot Act extension next week

By Felicia Sonmez, The Washington Post

The House is poised to vote next week on legislation renewing key provisions of the counterterrorism surveillance law known as the Patriot Act that are set to expire this month.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s (R-Va.) office announced Friday that the House will consider a bill sponsored by Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) that would extend three provisions of the law enacted after the 9/11 terror attacks through Dec. 8, 2011.

One of the provisions authorizes the FBI to continue using roving wiretaps on surveillance targets; the second allows the government to access “any tangible items,” such as library records, in the course of surveillance; and the third is a “lone wolf” provision of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorist Prevention Act that allows for surveillance of targets who are not connected to an identified terrorist group.

All three would expire on Monday, Feb. 28, unless Congress moves to extend them.

Civil liberties advocates have contended that the Patriot Act gives the government too much latitude in conducting surveillance activities, intruding into the lives of private citizens. Proponents of the law argue that it is essential to national security in an era of evolving terrorist threats.

To read more, visit: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2011/02/house-to-take-up-patriot-act-e.html

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Posted by reteaparty on Feb 5 2011. Filed under Headlines, Liberty. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry