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Congress Had No Time to Read the USA PATRIOT Act
It is hard to determine how long the final version of the USA PATRIOT Act was available prior to its consideration. By all measures, it was not available to the public and was barely made available to members of Congress. As one of the primary examples of bills that were rushed through Congress, there was little chance that the PATRIOT Act wouldn’t be a major Read the Bill case study.
In the wake of the devastating terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the administration of President George W. Bush sought new legal tools to fight terrorism and ward off future attacks. The first move to introduce new tools and expand the federal government’s powers took the form of the USA PATRIOT Act, introduced in the House of Representatives on October 23, 2001.
Commonly known as the PATRIOT Act, the bill contained provisions aimed at expanding the federal government’s ability to gather intelligence, engage in domestic surveillance and secret searches and detain immigrants with little restraint. The provisions in the PATRIOT Act became immediately controversial, as civil liberties groups argued that these provisions gutted constitutional protections provided to citizens for generations.
The bill was brought to the floor of the House of Representatives on October 23, the same day it was introduced. Many Democrats expressed extreme displeasure over the hurried nature of the process. Rep. Bobby Scott said, “I think it is appropriate to comment on the process by which the bill is coming to us. This is not the bill that was reported and deliberated on in the Committee on the Judiciary. It came to us late on the floor. No one has really had an opportunity to look at the bill to see what is in it since we have been out of our offices.” Rep. John Conyers, the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, declared, “we are now debating at this hour of night, with only two copies of the bill that we are being asked to vote on available to Members on this side of the aisle.” Conyers was later famously pictured in the Michael Moore documentary “Fahrenheit 9/11” explaining that no lawmaker reads all the bills in Congress. The bill passed on October 24 by a vote of 357-66.
The Senate passed the bill the very next day and the president signed the bill on October 26, 2001.
The Patriot Act? Are you kidding? How about profiling something more immediately relevent? Like the Stimulus Bill which NO ONE had time to read, not those who voted on it much less the public. Trying to fight old Bush wars while ignoring the obvious surrounding you is as blindly partisan as you can get. If you want to learn something from the Patriot Act as a case study then how about “let’s not wait a half-dozen years to analyze it.” Analyze what’s happening NOW! While there is still a chance to influence the course of things… Leave your partisanship at the door!
Ellis
5:31 pm on Mar 2, 2009I think your final exclamatory remark should be directed to the mirror. In case you haven’t been reading our site, we’ve profiled the Stimulus bill, the Bailout, a bill amending the FDA, housing legislation bailing out Freddie and Fannie, the FISA Amendments Act, and now the USA PATRIOT Act. By reviewing these bills as case studies, we have shown that, over the years, Congress, no matter the party in charge, has pushed through important bills without providing the time for lawmakers or the public to read them. Perhaps you should read further before accusing people of having nefarious motives.
I don’t see why it is so upsetting to you that we have selected an important bill like the PATRIOT Act, which was available for fewer hours than the stimulus package, as a case study. How is it partisan to point out that the bill was pushed through in less than 24 hours?
5:44 pm on Mar 2, 2009It should never happen. It doesn’t matter if it is the democrats or republicans. No bill should ever be rushed through. Every congressman/senator should be given a reasonable time frame to read the bill. And – as representatives, the people should expect that they read every line. Anything short of that is gross negligence on the part of our elected officials.
What is hypocritical about Obama is that his entire election campaign was based on giving the people the information first. He was saying that we would have the bills to read for 5 days on his website. He has broken another campaign promise and has let down the American people. They announced today that the health care bill will not be published for the American people to read. This is disgraceful.
1:33 pm on Jun 29, 2009