Both Houses have approved proposals to reauthorize
USA PATRIOT Act sections scheduled to expire at the end of the year. The House passed
H.R. 3199 on July 21, 2005, 151 Cong. Rec. H6307; the Senate, S. 1389
on July 29, 2005 (although the Senate substituted its language for that of H.R. 3199 and
then passed H.R. 3199; for convenience the Senate version of H.R. 3199 is
referred to as S. 1389 here). This is a sketch of those bills and how they differ. Their
common provisions deal mostly with expanded federal authority under the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act (FISA) and the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA). The bills make
permanent all but two of the temporary USA PATRIOT Act sections. They postpone the expiration
of the two, dealing with FISA roving wiretaps and the so-call library or business records authority.
In these two, the national security letter statutes, and some of the other USA PATRIOT Act
provisions make sometimes parallel and sometimes individualistic adjustments. H.R. 3199
contains a number of features not found in S. 1389 including a first responder grant
program, new capital offenses and adjusted capital punishment procedures, sections that in large
measure replicate the seaport crimes portions of S. 378 (as reported), a substantial
expansion in federal forfeiture authority in terrorism and money laundering cases, and expansion of
federal wiretapping authority to embrace investigations into twenty crimes for which the authority
did not previously exist. A more detailed version of this report is available as CRS Report RL33027,
USA PATRIOT Act: Background and Comparison of House- and Senate-approved Reauthorization
and Related Legislative Action.