One of the famous acts of Congress is the USA Patriot Act that was first signed by George W Bush in 2001. The actual meaning of USA PATRIOT Act is “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act.” After that, it has been modified many times. In this paper, we will discuss that why the USA Patriot Act is subject to periodic reauthorization. With the help of USA Patriot Act history, periodic reauthorization will be discussed.
It was Congress that rushed to pass this legislation/Act that the security controls need to strengthened. Therefore, to prevent the country from terrorism and to enhance the ability of domestic security President George W. Bush agreed to this Act. However, considering the need for improved security measures this Act was amended several times since its initial enactment. First, it was amended in 2005 and after this amendment; it was named as the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005. The reason for this amendment was the opponents, who criticized the authorization of this law and wanted to improve this legislation so that the access of law enforcement agencies to business records can be expanded (Sanchez 2).
After all these amendments in provisions, the other step of government was taken in 2006 related to the amendment of USA Patriot Act. This time, it was named as the USA PATRIOT Act Additional Reauthorization Amendments Act of 2006. This amendment was done to create a balance between National Security and Individual liberty. Then, after this amendment this act helped to break up the terror cell in different cities of US such as New York, Ohio, and Virginia. Thus, 2006 this act proved itself as a big part of the homeland security (Sanchez 4).
It should be noted that other than these amendments Congress worked on the renewal of three controversial provisions that were about to expire in 2010. However, there were some provisions in which three of the act’s key provisions contained a sunset clause. It was the reason that it needed to be reauthorized periodically in which there are “roving” surveillance, “library provision” by opponents of the act, and the “lone wolf” provision. Firstly section 206 of the PATRIOT Act that is Roving Surveillance Authority was used by domestic law enforcement and many other criminal cases. Then, Roving wiretaps allowed the investigators to work within the law and use a variety of investigative tools (McNeill and Stim 5).
After that, Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act was launched for Business Record Orders under FISA. In this section, the domestic prosecutors rely on business records and solid proves or evidences for criminal charges for simple theft to homicide (McNeill and Stim 6). The last worthy of reauthorization was section 6001 of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act in which the Lone Wolf Provision was included. In this provision, it was allowed that law enforcement can track all non-citizens who ever commit any crime or get involved in any act of terrorism (McNeill and Stim 9).
After that, the last amendment bill was signed by Barak Obama. It was 2011 when the key elements of the Patriot Act were reauthorized. The positive point was that this bill aimed the renewal of four-year provisions that were the most controversial provisions of this legislation (Taylor 1).
Works Cited
Hudson, David L. "Patriot Act." 25 05 2004. First Amendment Center. 15 06 2016 <http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/patriot-act>.
McNeill, Jena Baker and Charles C. Stim. "Letting PATRIOT Act Provisions Expire Would Be Irresponsible." 2016. The Heritage Foundation. 15 06 2016 <http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2011/02/letting-patriot-act-provisions-expire-would-be-irresponsible>.
Sanchez, Julian. "The Reauthorization of the PATRIOT Act." 09 03 2011. Cato Institute. 15 06 2016 <http://www.cato.org/publications/congressional-testimony/reauthorization-patriot-act>.
Taylor, David G. "Revise the Patriot Act to increase oversight on government surveillance." 21 07 2011. Politifact. 15 06 2016 <http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/obameter/promise/179/revise-the-patriot-act-to-increase-oversight-on-go/>.
