USA Patriot Act

Just eight days after the attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, the Bush Administration made a legislative proposal that later became the USA Patriot Act. The proposal did not represent a careful examination of the failures and deficiencies of the law enforcement and intelligence agencies that led to the attacks. Rather, it was a collection of old policies that were taken off the shelf and dressed up as the new powers they needed to combat terrorism.

The attorney general demanded that Congress pass the bill within a week and without change. However, with the help of his staff, Democrat Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, started an intense negotiation with the Justice Department and won agreement on some changes. In the House, Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, the Republican who chairs the Judiciary Committee, and Michigan's John Conyers, the ranking Democrat, began negotiations that led to substantial improvements in the bill. The committee held an actual markup, at which further changes were made, and promised more revisions before the bill went to the floor.

In meetings with the House and Senate leadership, Attorney General Ashcroft warned that additional terrorist acts were imminent and that Congress would be to blame if the bill were not passed immediately. Congress could not withstand the pressure.

In the Senate, an all-night negotiation between leaders of the Senate and committee leaders and their staffs led to a bipartisan bill that took back most of the concessions previously made to Senator Leahy and ignored the House compromise version. The majority leader, Senator Thomas Daschle of South Dakota, then took this draft to the floor and sought unanimous consent to bring up the proposal and pass it without debate or amendment. Only Senator Russell Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat, voted against the bill.

Then it was the turn of the House. After another all-night drafting session, a text was produced that had only minor changes from the Senate-passed bill. It was rushed to the floor and passed with only three Republican and 75 Democratic votes in opposition. Thus by Friday, October 12, both houses had passed nearly identical antiterrorism bills.

The two versions were easily reconciled, and the President signed the USA Patriot Act into law on October 26, 2001.

On April 1, 2003 House Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr. (R-Wis.) and Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) wrote Attorney General Ashcroft requesting information on the USA PATRIOT Act and the war on terrorism. On May 13, 2003 the Department of Justice responded to the questions and on May 20, 2003 all documents were released to the public.

In January 2003, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released a report examining claims of civil liberties and civil rights violations as obligation in Section 1001 of the USA Patriot Act.

  • Read the letter sent to the Congressional Judiciary committees
  • Read the full OIG report

Testimony

To view the text of the bill and for a legislative history of the USA Patriot Act, go to

Analysis of specific provisions of the USA Patriot Act