Title: What to Expect for the PATRIOT Act Reauthorization
Headings: What to Expect for the PATRIOT Act Reauthorization
What to Expect for the PATRIOT Act Reauthorization
What exactly is the PATRIOT Act, and how did it affect the rules governing national security surveillance?
What’s expiring in March?
In Support of Research and Reporting on the Disparate Use and Impact of FISA
Why do these provisions have sunsets?
What’s the most important change for Congress to make to the PATRIOT Act?
It's Time to End the NSA's Metadata Collection Program
If the call detail records program is left on the books and gets restarted later, could the NSA collect my call records?
What other parts of FISA and the PATRIOT Act need reform?
How are problems highlighted in the inspector general report about FISA Court proceedings connected to the PATRIOT Act reauthorization?
What if Congress can’t agree on new legislation before the deadline?
What is the Project On Government Oversight doing to push for reform?
Help us shine a light on government waste, corruption, and abuse of power.
The Constitution Project

Content: What exactly is the PATRIOT Act, and how did it affect the rules governing national security surveillance? The PATRIOT Act was passed by Congress and subsequently signed into law by President George W. Bush in October 2001. The law expanded national security surveillance and also brought about a range of institutional changes, such as facilitating greater coordination between government agencies. While some elements of the law were intended to solve the types of problems that preceded the September 11 attacks, many others were simply from the executive branch’s long-standing wish list of ways to increase its surveillance powers. Congress passed the PATRIOT Act with little debate and little scrutiny of some of the bill’s problematic provisions, with insufficient consideration to how broadly parts of it could be used. The PATRIOT Act amended a preexisting law, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, governing all foreign intelligence and national security surveillance authorized by Congress (as opposed to internationally focused surveillance powers the president wields based on their inherent authority in the Constitution). That law, commonly known by its acronym, FISA, was passed in 1978 and created the authority for the government to obtain warrants to surveil individual targets based on probable cause that they are an “agent of a foreign power.” The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, also known as the FISA Court, which was also created as part of the law, approves these warrants. FISA has dramatically expanded since then. Over the last four decades, the government’s national security surveillance powers have increased significantly;