Nadler Heads Group Pushing Overhaul Of USA Patriot Act

WASHINGTON - Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat of New York, is heading up a bipartisan group of lawmakers who will press for overhaul of the USA Patriot Act, which expanded the surveillance powers of law enforcement in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

Some of the law's most controversial provisions are scheduled to expire at the end of the year, and President Bush's administration has called on Congress to make them permanent.

Both the House and Senate are conducting oversight hearings of the law, and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have expressed unease about some of the provisions. The attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, has signaled he is more open to compromise with lawmakers than was his predecessor, John Ashcroft.

"As Congress considers whether to renew these provisions, I am open to suggestions for clarifying and strengthening the act," Mr. Gonzales told the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this month.

Mr. Nadler will co-chair the group, the Patriot Act Reform Caucus, with two Republicans, Rep. Jeff Flake of Arizona and Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, and Rep. Bernard Sanders, an Independent of Vermont. The group, to be launched today, is expected to draw about 100 members and provide a forum for drafting proposed reforms with bipartisan support.

"The Patriot Act needs to be revised to bring it into conformity with the Constitution and to enhance checks and balances. Our default should not be simply to accept an executive branch who says, 'Just trust us,'" Mr. Nadler states in remarks prepared for delivery today.

Some provisions should be allowed to expire while others should be made permanent, and some permanent provisions should also be reformed, Mr. Nadler argues. He singled out as particularly troubling the law's expanded use of so-called National Security Letters, which allow the FBI to demand customer records from businesses without first obtaining a judicial warrant, and can prevent the business owner from telling the customer that the search has taken place.

Other enhanced investigation powers that concern lawmakers include so-called delayed-notification searches, known as "sneak and peek." They allow investigators to search a person's home or business and seize property without disclosing for weeks or months that they were there.

The lawmakers plan to work with the American Civil Liberties Union and the coalition of several conservative organizations, called the Patriots to Restore Checks and Balances, to propose changes to the law.