Several sections of the USA PATRIOT Act, P.L. 107-56, that expand federal law enforcement or foreign intelligence information gathering powers, are scheduled to sunset on December 31, 2005. Legislation has been introduced in both the House and the Senate to make these expiring provisions or some of them permanent, e.g., H.P. 3199 (Representative Sensenbrenner), 5. 1266 (Senator Roberts), 5. 1389 (Senator Specter). Other proposals would enlarge the list of expiring USA PATRIOT Acts sections, rendering temporary various, now permanent sections, e.g., H.P. 1526 (Representative Otter), 5. 737 (Senator Craig). Many of the proposals modify expiring sections before reauthorizing them, or reauthorize related temporary provisions enacted in other legislation, or amend or make temporary certain of the USA PATRIOT Act's permanent sections, or create or modify other related provisions dealing with law enforcement and foreign intelligence information gathering authority. This is a short background discussion of some of these proposals and brief summary of their content.

Congress enacted the USA PATRIOT Act soon after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The most controversial sections of the Act facilitate the federal government¿s collection of more info. from a greater number of sources than had previously been authorized in criminal or foreign intelligence investigations. With the changes came greater access to records showing an individual¿s spending and commun. patterns as well as increased authority to intercept e-mail and telephone conversations and to search homes and businesses. The impending expiration date has prompted legislative proposals which revisit changes made by the USA PATRIOT Act and related measures. This report surveys the legal environment in which the legislative proposals arise.

This report discusses the legal background associated with the sunset of various provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act and of subsequent related legislation.

Both Houses have approved proposals to reauthorize USA PATRIOT Act sections scheduled to expire at the end of the year. The House passed H.R. 3199 on July 21, 2005, 151 Cong. Rec. H6307; the Senate, S. 1389 on July 29, 2005 (although the Senate substituted its language for that of H.R. 3199 and then passed H.R. 3199; for convenience the Senate version of H.R. 3199 is referred to as S. 1389 here). This is a sketch of those bills and how they differ. Their common provisions deal mostly with expanded federal authority under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA). The bills make permanent all but two of the temporary USA PATRIOT Act sections. They postpone the expiration of the two, dealing with FISA roving wiretaps and the so-call library or business records authority. In these two, the national security letter statutes, and some of the other USA PATRIOT Act provisions make sometimes parallel and sometimes individualistic adjustments. H.R. 3199 contains a number of features not found in S. 1389 including a first responder grant program, new capital offenses and adjusted capital punishment procedures, sections that in large measure replicate the seaport crimes portions of S. 378 (as reported), a substantial expansion in federal forfeiture authority in terrorism and money laundering cases, and expansion of federal wiretapping authority to embrace investigations into twenty crimes for which the authority did not previously exist. A more detailed version of this report is available as CRS Report RL33027, USA PATRIOT Act: Background and Comparison of House- and Senate-approved Reauthorization and Related Legislative Action.

"The United States Code is the official codification of the general and permanent laws of the United States of America. The Code was first published in 1926, and a new edition of the code has been published every six years since 1934. The 2012 edition of the Code incorporates laws enacted through the One Hundred Twelfth Congress, Second Session, the last of which was signed by the President on January 15, 2013. It does not include laws of the One Hundred Thirteenth Congress, First Session, enacted between January 2, 2013, the date it convened, and January 15, 2013. By statutory authority this edition may be cited "U.S.C. 2012 ed." As adopted in 1926, the Code established prima facie the general and permanent laws of the United States. The underlying statutes reprinted in the Code remained in effect and controlled over the Code in case of any discrepancy. In 1947, Congress began enacting individual titles of the Code into positive law. When a title is enacted into positive law, the underlying statutes are repealed and the title then becomes legal evidence of the law. Currently, 26 of the 51 titles in the Code have been so enacted. These are identified in the table of titles near the beginning of each volume. The Law Revision Counsel of the House of Representatives continues to prepare legislation pursuant to 2 U.S.C. 285b to enact the remainder of the Code, on a title-by-title basis, into positive law. The 2012 edition of the Code was prepared and published under the supervision of Ralph V. Seep, Law Revision Counsel. Grateful acknowledgment is made of the contributions by all who helped in this work, particularly the staffs of the Office of the Law Revision Counsel and the Government Printing Office"--Preface.

Reproduction of the original: The Right to Privacy by Samuel D. Warren, Louis D. Brandeis