	Introduction

National security letters (NSL) are roughly comparable to administrative subpoenas. Five bills, introduced in the 111 th Congress, proposed substantial changes in the law governing NSL authority: 
H.R. 1800 , the National Security Letters Reform Act of 2009 (Representative Nadler); H.R. 3845 , the USA PATRIOT Amendments Act of 2009 (Representative Conyers); H.R. 3969 , the Counterterrorism Authorities Improvements Act of 2009 (Representative Reyes); S. 1686 , the Judicious Use of Surveillance Tools in Counterterrorism Efforts Act (JUSTICE Act) of 2009 (Senator Feingold)/ H.R. 4005 (Representative Holt); S. 1692 , the USA PATRIOT Act Sunset Extension Act of 2009 (Senator Leahy); and S. 2336 , the USA PATRIOT Reauthorization Act of 2009 (Senator Sessions). 111-92 (2009). The House Judiciary Committee reported out an amended version of H.R. 111-382 Pt. 1 (2009). The 111 th Congress adjourned without taking further on any of the proposals. 2006 Amendments

Several of the USA PATRIOT Act's intelligence gathering provisions were temporary and originally set to expire after five years. More specifically, the report found that:
a "significant number of NSL-related possible violations were not being identified or reported" as required; the only FBI data collection system produced "inaccurate" results; the FBI issued over 700 exigent letters acquiring information in a manner that "circumvented the ECPA NSL statute and violated the Attorney General's Guidelines ... and internal FBI policy;" the FBI's Counterterrorism Division initiated over 300 NSLs in a manner that precluded effective review prior to approval; 60% of the individual files examined showed violations of FBI internal control policies; the FBI did not retain signed copies of the NSLs it issued; the FBI had not provided clear guidance on the application of the Attorney General's least-intrusive-feasible-investigative-technique standard in the case of NSLs; the precise interpretation of toll billing information as it appears in the ECPA NSL statute is unclear; SAC supervision of the attorneys responsible for review of the legal adequacy of proposed NSLs made some of the attorneys reluctant to question the adequacy of the underlying investigation previously approved by the SAC; there was no indication that the FBI's misuse of NSL authority constituted criminal conduct; personnel both at FBI headquarters and in the field considered NSL use indispensable; and information generated by NSLs was fed into a number of FBI systems. In addition to authority to review and set aside NSL nondisclosure requirements, the federal courts also enjoy jurisdiction to review and enforce the underlying NSL requests. Proposed Amendments

			Sunset and Repeal

Three provisions governing foreign intelligence investigations sunset on February 28, 2011. The NSL provisions are not among them. The Nadler bill would have returned all but the National Security Act statute (50 U.S.C. 2709, the Right to Financial Privacy Act, and the Fair Credit Reporting Act. At the first sunset of USA PATRIOT Act provisions, Congress amended each of the NSL statutes in the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act and the USA PATRIOT Act Additional Reauthorization Amendments Act. They state that the issuing agency may prohibit recipients from disclosing the request—to anyone other than their attorney and those necessary to comply with the request, ever. On the other hand, they would have placed no express time limit on the recipient's right to judicial review nor upon the court's jurisdiction over the question; they stated only that the recipient would have a right to judicial review of the order, that the recipient would have needed to notify the agency of any desire for judicial review, and that the agency would have been obligated to petition the court for review within 30 days of receiving a recipient's request. Reports and Audits

Some of the NSL statutes provide for periodic reports to various Congressional committees. The same legislation directed the Inspector General of the Department of Justice to audit and report on the use of NSL authority for calendar years 2002 through 2006.
Five federal statutes authorize various intelligence agencies to demand, through National Security Letters (NSLs), certain customer information from communications providers, financial institutions, and consumer credit reporting agencies, under the Right to Financial Privacy Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the National Security Act, and Electronic Communications Privacy Act. The USA PATRIOT Act expanded NSL authority. Later reports of the Department of Justice Inspector General indicated that (1) the FBI considered the expanded authority very useful; (2) after expansion the number of NSLs requests increased dramatically; (3) the number of requests relating to Americans increased substantially; and (4) FBI use of NSL authority had sometimes failed to comply with statutory, Attorney General, or FBI policies.
Originally, the NSL statutes authorized nondisclosure requirements prohibiting recipients from disclosing receipt or the content of the NSL to anyone, ever. They now permit judicial review of these secrecy provisions. As understood by the courts, recipients may request the issuing agency to seek and justify to the court the continued binding effect of any secrecy requirement.
Several USA PATRIOT Act provisions are scheduled to expire on February 28, 2011. The NSL statutory provisions are not among them. Nevertheless, several bills were introduced in the 111th Congress which would have amended and in some cases repealed NSL authority. The bills included: (1) the National Security Letter Reform Act of 2009 (H.R. 1800), introduced by Representative Nadler; (2) the USA PATRIOT Amendments Act of 2009 (H.R. 3845), introduced by Representative Conyers and reported out by the House Judiciary Committee ( H.Rept. 111-382, Pt.1); (3) the Counterterrorism Authorities Improvements Act of 2009 (H.R. 3969), introduced by Representative Reyes; (4) the Judicious Use of Surveillance Tools in Counterterrorism Efforts Act of 2009 (JUSTICE Act) (S. 1686/H.R. 4005), introduced by Senator Feingold and Representative Holt; and (5) the USA PATRIOT Act Sunset Extension Act of 2009 (S. 1692), introduced by Senator Leahy and reported out by the Senate Judiciary Committee (S.Rept. 111-92). A sixth bill, the USA PATRIOT Reauthorization Act of 2009 (S. 2336), introduced by Senator Sessions, which would have neither amended nor repealed NSL authority, would have amended the judicial review provisions governing NSL recipient secrecy requirements.
In addition to sunset and repeal, the bills raise issues involving amendment of nondisclosure requirements; the promulgation of standards to minimize capturing, using, and holding (long term) NSL generated information, continued periodic IG audits and reports, and limitations on statutory provisions thought by some to permit circumvention of NSL statutory requirements. The 111th Congress adjourned without further action on any of the proposals.
This report includes a chart comparing the provisions of the bills and current law. It also reprints the text of the five NSL statutes as they now appear and as they appeared prior to amendment by the USA PATRIOT Act (to which form they would have returned under some of the bills).