The House of Representatives vs. The Senate

In overall Bush’s outlook on the Patriot Act was for it to be a compromised version of the ATA. However the Senate and the House each approved very different versions of the legislation to reauthorize the Patriot Act. Here are some differences between the bills passed between them:

• The Senate version gives new, four-year sunsets for sec. 215 (the “library records” provision) and sec. 206 (expanding the use of roving wiretaps). The House bill uses ten-year sunsets, too long to wait for congressional re-evaluation of a statute affecting constitutional civil liberties.

• The Senate revision to sec. 215 requires the government to provide specific evidence to support the suspicion that an individual has links to terrorism before allowing seizure of business records about that individual. The House version does not require this factual showing, retaining the guideline that the government must merely state for the court that the search is “relevant” to a terrorist investigation.

• The Senate revision to sec. 213 (the “sneak and peek” provision) permits the government only a seven-day delay in notifying the subject of a secret search, with seven-day renewals available for good cause presented to the court. The House version sets an initial 180-day limit.

• The Senate revision to sec. 206 requires the government to identify with “particularity” the person under scrutiny and to provide an after-the-tap report to the issuing court explaining why the FBI believed that the person so identified was using the phone being tapped. The House version does not have a “particularity” standard and only requires the agent to notify the judge after-the-fact when the government changes the location of a tap.

• A National Security Letter (NSL) is an FBI demand for documents from credit reports, financial records, and phone/internet service provider records, dealt with in Patriot Act sec. 505. The Senate revision to sec. 505 authorizes the recipient of an NSL to consult with an attorney and challenge the order in court. Under the House version, the FBI can prevent this consultation and challenge by submitting to a court a (non-challengeable) certification of “harm to the national interest.”

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www.fcnl.org/issues/item.php?item_id=1509&issue_id=68