Title: USA PATRIOT Act | Facts, History, Acronym, & Controversy | Britannica
Headings: USA PATRIOT Act
USA PATRIOT Act
United States [2001]
WRITTEN BY
History
Provisions

Content: George W. Bush Library/NARA
History
In the wake of the September 11 attacks, the Bush administration submitted to Congress draft legislation designed to expand the powers of the government to surveil, investigate, and detain suspected terrorists. The eventual Senate bill, the Uniting and Strengthening America (USA) Act, was passed (96–1) on October 11. The House measure, which included much of the text of the Senate’s USA Act, was passed (337–79) on October 12 as the Uniting and Strengthening America (USA) Act. On October 23 the House introduced a compromise bill, the USA PATRIOT Act, which was passed (357–66) the following day. The Senate adopted (98–1) the House bill without amendment on October 25, and the following day Bush signed the measure into law. Provisions
Some key provisions of the legislation consisted of amendments to the Wiretap Act (1968; amended 1986 and 1994), which had prohibited eavesdropping by the government on private face-to-face, telephone, and electronic communications except as authorized by court order in narrowly defined circumstances in cases of serious crimes. Sections 201 and 202 of the USA PATRIOT Act added computer and terrorist crimes to the list of serious offenses in connection with which law-enforcement officials could seek a court order to conduct eavesdropping. Section 209 established that voice mail was not entitled to the same protections that governed telephone conversations but only to the weaker safeguards applicable to telephone records and e-mail stored with third parties (usually an Internet service provider ). In Section 210 the act added individual subscribers’ credit card or bank account numbers to records that could be obtained from a communication services provider through a subpoena.