Title: How the Patriot Act Works | HowStuffWorks
Headings: How the Patriot Act Works
How the Patriot Act Works
Main Provisions of the Patriot Act
Titles III-X of the Patriot Act
Primary Criticisms of the Act
A Brief History of the Patriot Act
Is the Patriot Act a Success or a Failure?
Opposing the Patriot Act
Citation

Content: Wired.com ]. Separate versions of the law went before the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Senate version was passed on October 11, 2001, but the House version was altered several times, then redrafted and reconciled with the Senate version before being approved by the House. The Senate approved this revised consolidated version and the full bill was signed into law by President Bush on October 26, 2001. Advertisement
The original act has a sunset clause which would have caused many of the law’s provisions to expire in 2005. By then, opposition to the act had grown and Democrats used a filibuster to delay reauthorization. The sunset clause was extended for several months, but increased Democratic power in Congress forced a compromise, and the act was reauthorized in early 2006 with a series of “civil liberties safeguards” in place [Source: CNN ]. Most of the act’s provisions were made permanent, but many were changed and three of them were not made permanent. Libraries will no longer be subject to National Security Letters (unless that library also serves as an Internet Service Provider).