Representative
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515

RE: Don't extend USA PATRIOT Act!

Dear Representative ,

I am very deeply concerned about reports indicating that the Bush Administration and certain members of the Senate are considering moving quickly on legislation that would make permanent provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act that are scheduled to sunset in 2005. This legislation greatly expanded the government's power to use eavesdropping, surveillance, access to financial and computer records and other tools to track terrorist suspects. I believe that not enough time has passed to evaluate the intrusive impact of these provisions, and that the Bush Administration's reticence to share information about the implementation of powers authorized by the USA PATRIOT Act should be addressed before any consideration of legislation to make these expansive new powers permanent.

The expansive nature of these new powers led many legislators and many Americans to support the USA PATRIOT Act only if some of these provisions contained sunset provisions, set to expire at the end of 2005. The purpose of the sunset provision, as you will recall from the debate in 2001, was to allow Congress and the public to review and consider whether these provisions are effective or have been abused to intrude unnecessarily into the lives of persons in the United States before they are made permanent.

After a mere eighteen months since the enactment of the legislation, it is simply too soon to measure the impact of these provisions and move to make them permanent. For this reason, it is deeply disturbing to hear that the Bush Administration and certain members of the Senate want to act immediately to try to make these powers permanent.

I very strongly urge you to resist these attempts to rush to judgment on this important issue. There is ample time between now and the end of 2005 for Congress to conduct meaningful oversight hearings of the Department of Justice and make considered decisions about the extension of the authority and power contained in the USA PATRIOT Act. The precious civil liberties which Americans have defended for over 200 years are at stake.

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