This morning beginning at 10 a.m. Eastern, the Senate Judiciary Committee will be marking up S.1692, USA PATRIOT Act Sunset Extension Act of 2009 (spnsors: Leahy, Feinstein, Cardin, Whitehouse, Klobuchar, Kaufman). This act will be re-authorizing several key provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act, determining how are civil liberties are protected, and whether the provisions will be re-sunsetted and visited again.
Senator Russ Feingold is expected to introduce several amendments, attempting to bring this bill into line with the JUSTICE Act, which he and Senator Durbin introduced a couple of weeks ago. That act would have made several fixes to the Patriot Act, and to the laws regarding National Security Letters. Sadly, Senator Leahy, the committee chairman first offered a substantially weaker bill, then watered even that down at the behest of Sen. Feinstein.
Marcy Wheeler of Emptywheel at Fire Dog Lake, and the members of Get FISA Right are live blogging the business meeting. Join us at http://bit.ly/.... Please join us.