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Congress Holds Hearings to Consider Sunset Provisions of Patriot ActThe U.S. Senate and House held oversight hearings April 5 and 6 on the USA Patriot Act, the first in a series of planned congressional debates to consider whether to renew the 16 portions of the law set to expire at the end of the year.Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and FBI Director Robert Mueller defended the expiring provisions, including Section 215, which allows the Justice Department to conduct searches of library and bookstore records without a subpoena. But Gonzales also said he would consider limited changes such as amending the law to allow those served with subpoenas to contact a lawyer. Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), the only senator to vote against the Patriot Act in 2001, praised Gonzales’s approach as a “welcome change after three-and-a-half years of the Justice Department adamantly opposing any modifications and belittling critics.” Shortly before the hearings began, the Justice Department released newly declassified information about the Patriot Act’s use, including a report that Section 215 had been used 35 times since late 2003. While Gonzales emphasized that the DOJ had never used the provision to obtain records from libraries or bookstores, he rejected the idea that libraries should be exempt from Section 215, the New York Times reported April 6. “The department has no interest in rummaging through the library records or the medical records of Americans,” Gonzales said. However, “there may be an occasion where having the tools of 215 to access this kind of information may be very helpful to the department in dealing with the terrorist threat,” he added. “It’s comparable to a police officer who carries a gun for 15 years and never draws it. Does that mean that for the next five years he should not have that weapon because he had never used it?” The following day, Gonzales testified before the House Judiciary Committee, and legislators in both the House and Senate reintroduced versions of the Security and Freedom Enhancement (SAFE) Act, a bipartisan bill that would scale back the Patriot Act. Posted April 8, 2005. |
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