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Kyl Amendment to Strengthen Patriot Act
The largest expansion of federal powers since the USA PATRIOT Act died in the Senate Oct. 5, 2004. Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ)'s amendment to the Senate intelligence reform bill, S. 2845, was ruled nongermane.
The amendment used some provisions from the Patriot Act II -- failed legislation that was never introduced to Congress after a leaked draft in 2003 resulted in strong public backlash. Among other things, the Kyl amendment would have:
- Expanded secret eavesdropping and search powers;
- Infringed on the right to privacy for library, medical and other personal records;
- Enabled the government to present secret requests for the deletion of classified information from information given to the defense in certain court cases;
- Allowed for the secret use of information gathered through intelligence intercepts and searches in immigration cases; and
- Made any crimes resulting in fatalities a death-eligible offense if it meets the USA PATRIOT Act's overbroad definition of terrorism.
Many felt the amendment would have gone outside the scope of the 9/11 Commission's recommendations.
Source: text of the amendment
