Senate Judiciary ranking member Jeff Sessions, introduced legislation Friday to reauthorize three expiring provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act two weeks after his panel approved 11-8 a related reauthorization bill offered by Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy. Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Chairman Joseph Lieberman and Sen. Christopher (Kit) Bond, R-Mo., joined Sessions in offering the new bill.
Sessions said his measure "provides a common-sense and uncontroversial path to timely reauthorization." Bond said the bill "makes clear to our intelligence professionals that keeping our nation safe is their highest responsibility and ensures they have the tools needed to get the job done." Lieberman cited FBI Director Robert Mueller's recent urging that Congress reenact the provisions as essential tools in the FBI's counterterrorism efforts. Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., has also introduced a PATRIOT Act bill.
Feingold and civil liberties groups criticized Leahy's measure for not going further in reworking the anti-terrorism statute. The expiring sections include authority to go after the individual terrorist suspects -- the "lone wolf" -- who may not readily be associated with a foreign power, power to institute roving wiretaps on multiple phones or computers, and authority to require third parties such as telecommunications or computer companies to secretly turn over records.
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