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Shortly after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 Congress passed The PATRIOT Act to help better coordinate efforts in the domestic war on terror. The events of 9/11 taught us that we needed to be more careful and we needed to remove the legal barriers that had previously prevented law enforcement, intelligence and national defense communities from coordinating their work. Last week, the House passed the USA PATRIOT and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2005, which reauthorizes the PATRIOT Act passed in 2001. I believe this is an important piece of legislation that helps our security personnel track and capture terrorists, while still guaranteeing privacy and civil liberties of law-abiding citizens.
The USA PATRIOT and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2005 makes 16 of the 18 expiring provisions in the PATRIOT Act permanent. This legislation enables FBI Agents, Federal prosecutors and intelligence officials to better protect communities by "connecting the dots" to uncover terrorist plots before they are completed. Provisions in this legislation allow law enforcement to use surveillance against more terror-related activities and conduct investigations without tipping off terrorists. It allows the authorization of nationwide search warrants and updates the law to reflect new technologies and new threats. The legislation allows Federal agents to follow sophisticated terrorists trained to evade detections. The PATRIOT Act also increases penalties for those who commit terrorist crimes and those who harbor terrorists.
During debate on this legislation in the House Judiciary Committee, two provisions, Section 206 dealing with roving wiretaps and section 215 dealing with library records, were made subject to 10-year sunsets. Applying sunsets to these provisions allows Congress to come back and look at these provisions down the road to see if they have been effective. If they have--great, if they haven't we can change them or improve them.
Since its passage, the USA PATRIOT Act has played a key role in a number of successful operations to protect innocent Americans from terrorists. Since the attacks of 9/11, the Department of Justice has arrested 395 individuals as a result of international terrorism investigations. Two hundred and twelve of those have been convicted. And although many people have criticized the PATRIOT ACT, there have been zero verified instances of civil liberty abuses of the USA PATRIOT Act by the Inspector General.
The USA PATRIOT Act helps us pro-actively detect and disrupt terrorism rather than just prosecuting those responsible after the tragedy. As President Bush has said in his State of the Union Address, "Key provisions of the PATRIOT Act are set to expire next year," but "the terrorist threat will not expire on that schedule. |
