Rep. Nadler: Legislative Changes Still Needed to Patriot Act Powers

Justice Department Reports Show Continued Abuses of Expanded Authorities

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Jerrold Nadler (NY-08), Chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, today renewed his call for Congress to provide legislative checks against the unprecedented and dangerous abuses of powers created, and expanded, by the Patriot Act.  

Today, the Justice Department’s Inspector General (IG) issued two reports: one on the National Security Letter (NSL) authority vastly expanded by the Patriot Act, and one specifically on Section 215 of the Act, which greatly expands the FBI’s power to collect the private business records of ordinary Americans.  In one example, the IG found that the FBI used the NSL authority after the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) denied the FBI’s Section 215 application.

“These two separate reports confirm one thing – legislative changes are needed to bring the Patriot Act in line with the Constitution,” said Rep. Nadler.  “I have long called for better checks and balances so that our law enforcement powers are focused, and the private information of innocent Americans is properly protected.  It is alarming that the FBI, when it failed to meet the low standard of Section 215 and was denied a FISC order, did not respect that ruling, circumvented the court and issued an NSL.”

For years, Rep. Nadler has led the call to fix the most egregious provisions of the Patriot Act, including both the Section 215 and the NSL authority.  Section 215 lowers the standard for FBI agents to obtain an order from the FISC for the private information of Americans.  The NSL authority allows the Attorney General to issue an administrative subpoena for certain information.  Last week, appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, FBI Director Robert Mueller told lawmakers that the government had misused the NSL authority.

Rep. Nadler, a chair of the Patriot Act Reform Caucus, has been a vocal critic of the unchecked NSL authority.  In July of last year, he introduced the bipartisan National Security Letters Reform Act of 2007, which would provide crucial checks against the NSL authority and would remove the “gag order” provisions that has been found unconstitutional.  

The legislation would take other steps to fix the NSL authority to bring it into conformity with the Constitution.  The bill’s original co-sponsors include the other chairs of the Patriot Act Reform Caucus, including Reps. Jeff Flake (AZ-06), William Delahunt (MA-10) and Ron Paul (TX-14).