This bill was born out of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on our country, and was just extended minutes before it's midnight expiration Thursday May 26, 2011.
President Obama signed the bill saying, "It's an important tool for us to continue dealing with an ongoing terrorist threat."
The delay in Congress getting the bill to the president was due to a handful of senators "who saw the terrorist-hunting powers as an abuse of privacy rights." -AP
Republican freshman Rand Paul of Kentucky, Paul held up the final vote for several days while he demanded a chance to change the bill to diminish the government's ability to monitor individual actions.
Paul argued that the Patriot Act that tramples on individual liberties. He had some backing from liberal Democrats and civil liberties groups who have long contended the law gives the government authority to spy on innocent citizens.
Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo., said the provision on collecting business records can expose law-abiding citizens to government scrutiny. "If we cannot limit investigations to terrorism or other nefarious activities, where do they end?" he asked.
"The Patriot Act has been used improperly again and again by law enforcement to invade Americans' privacy and violate their constitutional rights," said Laura W. Murphy, director of the ACLU Washington legislative office.
Hello, I am the wife of Lieutenant "Peter" (Alvin) Louis Smith, Jr. of the true story, Faithful Devotion.
On behalf of my late husband, I would like to say, first of all, the Patriot Act was not designed for "law-abiding" "innocent citizens."
It was the Patriot Act that enabled our government to find and eliminate Osama Bin Laden.
The government still has to seek warrants for investigations, and law-abiding, innocent cititzens have nothing to be afraid of.
The ones who fear this Patriot Act, are the very ones who fear their own acts being exposed.
"I was not worried about any threat to my life as the only reason there was a threat was that I would, someday, tell the story." Peter Smith, Faithful Devotion.
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