FBI chief: Letting Patriot Act expire would be a 'big problem'

Letting key portions of the Patriot Act expire at the end of the month would make it harder for the FBI to do its job, bureau Director James Comey warned. Most of the debate about the three expiring provisions has focused on the National Security Agency’s controversial and warrantless collection of millions of Americans’ phone “metadata,” but the FBI says it's also important to talk about the security aspect. “These three are going to go away June 1 and I don’t want them to get lost in the conversation about metadata,” Director Comey said at a Georgetown University conference on cybersecurity. For instance, Section 215 of the Patriot Act -- which the NSA has relied on to operate its bulk phone records collection program -- also allows the FBI to collect a variety of records from hotels, rental car companies and libraries during the course of an investigation. “If we lose that authority -- which I don’t think is controversial with folks -- that is a big problem,” Director Comey said. “Because we will find ourselves in circumstances where we can’t use a grand jury subpoena and we can't use a national security letter,” he added, referring to two other means of collecting information.