“Today the American people do not know how their government interprets the language of the Patriot Act,” Wyden said. “Someday they are going to find out, and a lot of them are going to be sstunned. Some of them will undoubtedly ask their senators: ‘Did you know what this law actually did? Why didn’t you know? Wasn’t it your job to know, before you voted on it?’”
In a statement before the vote, Udall said the law allows the government to “place wide-ranging wiretaps on Americans without even identifying the target or location of such surveillance; target individuals who have no connection to terrorist organizations, and collect business records on law-abiding Americans, without any connection to terrorism.”
Nonetheless, most members of Congress, including others who have received the classified briefings, apparently did not share their concerns. The Senate passed the extension, 72-23, with Wyden and Udall voting “no.” The bill cleared the House, 250-153.
Still, the warnings by two lawmakers with access to secret information underscore the extent to which government surveillance is shielded from view, in an age when nearly every American leaves a digital trail through the Internet and mobile devices.
Civil libertarians say they suspect the act is used to justify bulk collection of data, most of which is associated with people unconnected to terrorism investigations.
Government officials declined to address the specifics of what Wyden and Udall were referencing. But Todd Hinnen, the assistant attorney general for national security, told Congress in March that the Patriot Act’s business records provision supports “important and highly sensitive intelligence-collection operations” that he could not discuss further.
A clue about Wyden’s concerns may be found in a separate bill he is proposing, to forbid the government from tracking, without a court order, the location of Americans through the GPS signals given out by their cellphones.
