PATRIOT Act are scheduled

Talk Back to Congress

Three provisions of the PATRIOT Act are scheduled to expire at the end of the year. President Barack Obama wants Congress to renew them.

Some Democrats, led by Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, want to use the renewal as an opportunity to make broader changes in the law because they think it gives the government too much power to snoop.

Proponents of the PATRIOT Act, including many Republicans and the head of the FBI, say the law gives law enforcement much-needed flexibility to track terrorist activity in the U.S.

The elements that are set to expire include one that lets law enforcement attach a court-approved wiretap on an individual as opposed to a particular phone line, another that lowers the court standard of suspicion for allowing law enforcement to collect records in a terrorism investigation and a third that says law enforcement doesn't have to show a suspected terrorist has a connection to a foreign power to set up surveillance.

House and Senate committees will begin working on the issue this week.

Tell your lawmakers what you think about this week's topic.