Jeff Flake

USA Patriot Act During the 2005 debate on renewal of the expiring provisions of the Patriot Act, Jeff Flake successfully submitted several amendments to the bill in the House of Representatives. One required the FBI director to personally sign off on any request for library and bookstore records before applying to the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court but it was altered in the United States Senate version of the bill. Two of his amendments were signed into law and they subjected any National Security Letter and its gag order to a judicial challenge by the recipient, and narrowed the scope of "Sneak and Peek" warrants to have definite time limits on their duration and extensions before they need to notify the target of the investigation. Before that "Sneak and Peek" warrants could be extended by the vague standard of not "unduly delaying trial" without any defined time limitation. This amended bill was titled the U.S.A Patriot Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005 and it was signed into law on March 9, 2006. This bill also required three Inspector General investigations that lead to the discovery of exigent letters and National Security Letter abuses. Read Less