Sessions, Lieberman, Bond Urge Reauthorization of Critical PATRIOT Act Provisions

WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, introduced legislation today to reauthorize three critical provisions of the USA Patriot Act that are used by America's intelligence community to investigate and prevent terrorist attacks against the U.S. The provisions will expire at the end of the year without Congressional action.

Senators Joe Lieberman, Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and Kit Bond, Vice Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, co-sponsored the legislation.

Sessions made the following remarks today:

"American agents are risking their lives every day to investigate terror plots and prevent another terror attack against the United States. Prior to the PATRIOT Act, security agents were prevented from using basic intelligence-gathering tools, even though these resources had long been available in routine law enforcement. The PATRIOT Act, passed in the wake of 9/11 with broad bipartisan support, fixed that problem, and we know now that numerous attacks were averted as a result. Eighty-nine members of the Senate voted in favor of these provisions in 2006, including the current President, Vice-President, and Secretary of State, and it's critical that Congress move swiftly to reauthorize these statutes before they expire. I believe this bipartisan bill provides a common-sense and uncontroversial path to timely reauthorization."

Said Senator Bond, "Our intelligence community should never be forced to question whether our priority is protecting Americans' safety or protecting the privacy of terrorists. This bill makes clear to our intelligence professionals that keeping our nation safe is their highest responsibility and ensures they have the tools needed to get the job done."

Said Senator Lieberman, "Our intelligence and law enforcement professionals need a complete and immediate reauthorization of the expiring PATRIOT Act provisions. FBI Director Robert Mueller recently urged Congress to reenact these provisions as essential tools in the FBI's counterterrorism efforts. Recent arrests of alleged terrorists plotting attacks throughout our country clearly show that this is no time to weaken or undermine the tools that law enforcement relies on to protect America from another terrorist attack."

A summary of the three expiring provisions follows:

• The "roving wiretap" provision: This tool allows investigators to follow sophisticated terrorists who are trained to evade detection (for example, by rapidly changing cell phone numbers). This authority protects agents from having to file repetitious court applications to continue an investigation every time a terrorist changes phones. Roving wiretaps have been used in domestic law enforcement for decades.

• The "business records" provision: This provision allows investigators to ask a court for an order to obtain certain records in national security and terrorism cases. Examining business records often provides the key that investigators are looking for to solve a wide range of crimes.

• The "lone wolf" provision: This provision allows intelligence investigations of terrorists who are not connected to a foreign nation or organization. Before 2004, national security officials had to show a court that a target was an agent of a foreign power, or acting on behalf of a foreign power, in order to get permission to monitor him. This was a problem in the case of Zacharias Moussaoui (the so-called "20th hijacker" in the 9/11 attacks), when agents could not get a search warrant for his computer because they could not show that he was an agent of a foreign power.

Note: In addition to a clean reauthorization of these provisions, the bill would also correct a problem identified in the Second Circuit case of Doe v. Mukasey. That case held that the standard the government was required to meet to enforce the nondisclosure requirement of a national security letter was too deferential to the government. This legislation fixes that problem in the same manner as the legislation approved by the Judiciary Committee earlier this month.