The United States Patriot Act was passed on October 26, 2001 by George W. Bush with a Senate vote of 98 to 1 and a House vote of 357 to 66. It was passed in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11th. The act expanded laws to enable the government to create more surveillance in the country. By enacting this law, the government has created a great conflict between those that agree with the act, mainly conservatives, and those that think this gives the government too much power, mostly liberals. The act has enlarged the power of the government when fighting terrorism and is also used to find information on other crimes including false information on terrorism.

Most of the Patriot Act expands upon other laws that are already in place including the Foreign Intelligence Act of 1978, the Federal Reserve Act, and Title 18 of the United States Code. The FISA of 1978 lists the procedures for obtaining authorization of electronic surveillance and search rights. Title 18 discusses crime and criminal procedure.

While there are many parts to the Patriot Act, when President Bush signed the USA Patriot Improvement and Reauthorization Act on March 9, 2006, he described it as this:

“The law allows our intelligence and law enforcement officials to continue to share information. It allows them to continue to use tools against terrorists that they used against- that they use against drug dealers and other criminals. It will improve our nation’s security while we safeguard the civil liberties of our people. The legislation strengthens the Justice Department so it can better detect and disrupt terrorist threats. And the bill gives law enforcement new tools to combat threats to our citizens from international terrorists to local drug dealers (Source).”

There are many controversial issues involved with the Patriot Act, besides the conflict between the liberals and conservatives. The act limited due process for those involved in terrorism, which the RICO act already did for those involved in organized crime, racketeering and drug trafficking.

The Patriot Act is composed of ten titles, and each title contains numerous sections. These titles are:

Title I: Enhancing Domestic Security against Terrorism
Title II: Enhanced Surveillance Procedures
Title III: International money laundering abatement and anti-terrorist financing act of 2001
Title IV: Protecting the border
Title V: Removing obstacles to investigating terrorism
Title VI: Providing for victims of terrorism, public safety officers and their families
Title VII: Increased information sharing for critical infrastructure protection
Title VIII: Strengthening the criminal laws against terrorism
Title IX: Improved intelligence
Title X: Miscellaneous

The USA Act, which much of the Patriot Act was taken from, was passed by the Senate on October 11, 2001 and the House on October 12, 2001. Except for a few differences, these acts are very similar. These differences are:

• The inclusion of the Financial Anti-Terrorism Act (which expands money laundering abatement to international terrorism)
  
• Immunity against prosecution for the providers of wiretaps in accordance with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978
  
• Request for a report on integrating automated fingerprint identification for ports of entry into the United States
  
• Start of a foreign student monitoring program
  
• Request for machine readable passports
  
• Prevention of consulate shopping
  
• Expansion of the Biological Weapons Statute
  
• Clearer definition of “Electronic Surveillance”
  
• Miscellaneous benefits for victims of the September 11 attack and extra penalties for those who illegally file for such benefits