Patriot Act Excesses

Three high-profile provisions of the USA Patriot Act are about to expire. That should be a chance for Congress to give serious consideration to curtailing some of the excessive powers it granted to the executive branch during the Bush years — without enough consideration in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 and later. Instead, Congress is headed toward renewing the provisions — including expanded authority to search financial records, conduct roving wiretaps and track "lone wolf" terrorist suspects — without adequate oversight or safeguards or touching other problematic areas of the new surveillance and intelligence framework. Chances are fading for an expansive and searching review of the USA Patriot Act, which was the whole point of having some of its central provisions expire. The Judiciary Committee's deliberations are scheduled to resume on Thursday. It is one more critical chance to add missing civil liberties and privacy protections, address known abuses and trim excesses that contribute nothing to making America safer.