The U.S. Senate passed a one-year extension of the expiring provision of the USA PATRIOT Act, which will extend the provisions until February 28, 2011. President Obama signed this legislation into law this weekend.
“I am disappointed that Congress could not act this year to make improvements to the Patriot Act. As the Chairman of the Terrorism and Homeland Security Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I was pleased to work with Chairman Leahy to craft such legislation that was approved by a bipartisan vote of the Judiciary Committee in October. Our legislation would have increase Congressional and judicial oversight of the government’s existing Patriot Act powers, and put new limits on the use of National Security Letters (NSL). I look forward to continuing to work with Chairman Leahy and the Administration to provide the tools needed to our law enforcement and intelligence community to prevent terrorist attacks while safeguarding important privacy and civil liberties protections.”