The House Judiciary Committee endorsed legislation today that would reauthorize two of three expiring Patriot Act provisions that expanded the government’s powers in counter-terrorism investigations.

The panel voted 16 to 10 along party lines to allow the “lone wolf” provision to sunset at the end of the year and reauthorize the records and “roving wiretap” powers. The panel also voted to put more restrictions on so-called national security letters, which are used by the FBI to obtain evidence without a court order.

Here’s what The USA Patriot Amendment Act of 2009 as reported out of committee would do to the expiring Patriot Act provisions:

• Lone wolf: The bill would not extend authority allowing the government to track a target who has no discernible affiliation to a foreign power, such as an international terrorist group. The provision only applies to non-U.S. persons. It has never been used by the government.
• Records: The legislation would continue to allow the government to compel third parties — including financial, travel and telephone companies — to provide access to a suspect’s records. But the bill would place some new restrictions on this authority. Republicans have been especially critical of language in the bill that would make it much more difficult for the government to obtain periodical or book records from libraries or bookstores if the documents would identify patrons. The panel failed to adopt an amendment yesterday from Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Calif.) that would have eliminated the language on obtaining book records from periodical or book records from libraries or bookstores.
• Roving wiretaps: The bill would continue to allow the government to monitor phone lines or Internet accounts that a terrorism suspect may be using. But the legislation would add more controls. The bill would restrict the roving wiretap to a specific individual, foreign agent or foreign power. Civil liberties groups have expressed concern that this authority doesn’t hold the government accountable if it monitors unintended targets.

Panel Republicans sharply criticized the legislation as harmful to national security. Republicans also expressed frustration that Conyers did not hold a full committee public hearing after the bill was introduced Oct. 20.

A House Judiciary subcommittee held a hearing with National Security Division Deputy Assistant Attorney General Todd Hinnen on the expiring provisions before the legislation was introduced. The full panel held a closed-door hearing with National Security Division chief David Kris on the sunsetting powers last Thursday.

“I am disappointed we did not have a public hearing on this bill,” House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Lamar Smith (R-Texas) said yesterday when the bill markup began. “The committee should not take up such important legislation without first fully examining the bill and receiving substantive input from the administration’s national security experts.”

The committee’s minority members held a forum on the legislation Tuesday. Bush administration officials Rachel Brand, who headed the Office of Legal Policy; and Will Moschella, who was an Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs, spoke against the bill at the Capitol Hill meeting.

“The bill before us may not be perfect. Few bills are,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) said said yesterday when the bill markup began. “But it greatly protects the privacy and freedom of Americans and preserves at the same time critical surveillence powers.”

The Justice Department has said it supports the reauthorization of all the expiring Patriot Act provisions, but it has declined to comment on any changes to the powers. The legislation endorsed by the Senate Judiciary Committee extends all the sunsetted provisions, while putting tighter controls on the powers.

The Department of Justice has assembled leadership for its National Security Division. At the helm is Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brad Wiegmann, a DOJ news release announced today.

Wiegmann, who reports directly to Assistant Attorney General David Kris, will take full-time leadership of the National Security Division after he completes his work as co-chair of the President’s Detention Policy Task-Force, which is looking for ways to shut down Guantanamo Bay and provide trials for detainees.  Backing Wiegmann up will be Donald Vieira, who joins the NSD leadership as Chief of Staff to Wiegman, the press release said. Vieira has served in the NSD previously, as a Counterespionage Section attorney and on staff of the inter-agency Committee on Foreign Investment of the United States (CFIUS), which reviews foreign investments in strategic industries.

From the DOJ:

Todd Hinnen is the Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Law and Policy. Mr. Hinnen joins the Division from the U.S. Senate, where he served as Chief Counsel to then-Senator Joe Biden. Previously, Mr. Hinnen was a Director at the National Security Council’s Combating Terrorism Directorate and a Trial Attorney in the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.

Tashina Gauhar is the Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Intelligence. Ms. Gauhar has extensive experience working with the U.S. Intelligence Community and has held a variety of national security positions within the Department since 2001, including serving as an Assistant Counsel in the Office of Intelligence Policy and Review and later as the Deputy Chief of Operations in the Office of Intelligence, and recently the Chief of Operations. Prior to joining the Justice Department, Ms. Gauhar was an associate at the law firm of DLA Piper (then Piper Marbury Rudnick and Wolfe, LLP).

George Toscas is currently serving as the Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Counterterrorism and Counterespionage. Having entered the Department through the Attorney General’s Honors Program, Mr. Toscas is a career prosecutor with 16 years of prosecutorial experience. During his tenure, he has worked on some of the most sensitive and significant national security matters in the Department. Mr. Toscas previously served in the Counterterrorism Section and its predecessor, the Terrorism and Violent Crime Section, at the Justice Department.

This leadership team is assisted by Sheryl L. Walter, who will remain the Division’s Executive Officer. Ms. Walter previously served in the Justice Department as Chief of Staff in the former Office of Intelligence Policy and Review, as Acting Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs, and as an attorney-advisor in the Office of Legislative Affairs. Prior to joining the Department she worked at the United States Senate. Ms. Walter also has worked in the private sector as general counsel for a nonprofit research institute and as an associate at the law firm formerly known as Mayer, Brown and Platt. She clerked for the Honorable Donald P. Lay, Chief Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

The work of the Division’s leadership team is also aided by experienced counsels and counselors:

Leonard Bailey is Senior Counselor to the Assistant Attorney General. Mr. Bailey and is spearheading the NSD’s new cyber efforts. Mr. Bailey comes to the NSD from the Criminal Division’s Computer Crimes and Intellectual Property Section. He has been with the Justice Department since 1991 and is widely respected within the Justice Department and the Intelligence Community for his knowledge of cyber issues.

Carrie Cordero is Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General. Ms. Cordero recently returned to the NSD from a joint duty assignment at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, where she served as a senior associate general counsel in the General Counsel’s office. Previously, Ms. Cordero was an attorney in the Justice Department’s Office of Intelligence and its predecessor, the Office of Intelligence Policy and Review, having joined DOJ through the Honor Program. She has also been a Special Assistant United States Attorney.

Brian Nelson is Special Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General. Mr. Nelson recently served in private practice as an associate with the law firm of Sidley Austin LLP in Washington, D.C. Earlier in his career, Mr. Nelson served as a Law Clerk to Judge Louis H. Pollak on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and to William A. Fletcher on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Senate Democrats joined their House counterparts today in questioning the Obama administration’s broad support of three expiring Patriot Act provisions that expand the government’s powers in counter-terrorism investigations.

David Kris (Harvard Law)

Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats pushed National Security Division Assistant Attorney General David Kris to comment today on proposed legislation that puts stipulations on the reauthorization of Patriot Act powers that sunset at the end of the year, The Associated Press reported. Panel Chair Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) introduced legislation yesterday that reapproves the provisions, but allows Congress and the public to better monitor the use of the powers.

Kris said the Justice Department does not have an official position on the bill beyond the administration’s support of reauthorizing the expiring provisions, according to The AP. The Assistant Attorney General said in his written testimony that the Justice Department is “ready and willing to work with members … to craft legislation that both provides effective investigative authorities and protects privacy and civil liberties.” National Security Division Deputy Assistant Attorney General Todd Hinnen also refused to take a position on possible changes to the provisions, which frustrated Democrats at a House Judiciary Constitution, civil rights and civil liberties subcommittee meeting yesterday.

Here’s a summary of the provisions:

• Lone wolf: Allows government to track a target without any discernible affiliation to a foreign power, such as an international terrorist group. The provision only applies only to non-U.S. persons. It has never been used in a FISA application.
• Business records: Allows investigators to compel third parties, including financial services and travel and telephone companies, to provide them access to a suspect’s records without the suspect’s knowledge. From 2004 to 2007, the FISA court issued about 220 orders to produce business records.
• Roving wiretaps: Allows the government to monitor phone lines or Internet accounts that a terrorism suspect may be using, whether or not others who are not suspects also regularly use them. The government must provide the FISA court with specific information showing the suspect is purposely switching means of communication to evade detection. The government has applied for roving wiretaps an average of 22 times a year since 2001.

Leahy said, according to The AP, that the administration’s position keeps “the cards … rather stacked” in favor of the government.

Kris responded, according to the news wire, “We’re willing to look to see if these tools can be sharpened.”

Like the House Republicans, Senate Republicans supported the Justice Department’s position on the provisions. Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said there is no indication that “there have been any abuses to date,” according to The AP.

Democrats have long been skeptical of whether the Bush administration abused the Patriot Act powers and national security letters, which the FBI uses to obtain evidence without a court order. The Leahy bill and legislation introduced by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) would put more restrictions on the letters.

DOJ Inspector General Glenn Fine said in his written testimony to the committee today that the Office of Inspector General found the FBI initially did not “take seriously enough its responsibility to ensure that these letters were used in accord with the law, Attorney General Guidelines, or FBI policies.” But the FBI has taken steps to correct it use of the letters, he said.

“We … believe that as Congress considers reauthorizing provisions of the Patriot Act, it must ensure through continual and aggressive oversight that the FBI uses these important and intrusive investigative authorities appropriately,” Fine wrote in his testimony.

A Justice Department official Tuesday gave the Obama administration’s case for reauthorizing three expiring Patriot Act provisions that expand the government’s powers in counter-terrorism investigations. But House Judiciary Committee Democrats weren’t entirely convinced.

Todd Hinnen (Main Justice)

Todd Hinnen, National Security Division Deputy Assistant Attorney General, told House Judiciary Committee members that roving wiretaps, the authority to access business records and the ability to track “lone-wolf� terrorists, or those without visible ties to a foreign terrorist organization, are still needed to probe suspected terrorists. The Justice Department said last week it supported the reauthorization of the three provisions that expire at the end of the year.

Here’s a little bit more about the provisions:

• Lone wolf: Allows government to track a target without any discernible affiliation to a foreign power, such as an international terrorist group. The provision only applies only to non-U.S. persons. It has never been used in a FISA application.
• Business records: Allows investigators to compel third parties, including financial services and travel and telephone companies, to provide them access to a suspect’s records without the suspect’s knowledge. From 2004 to 2007, the FISA court issued about 220 orders to produce business records.
• Roving wiretaps: Allows the government to monitor phone lines or Internet accounts that a terrorism suspect may be using, whether or not others who are not suspects also regularly use them. The government must provide the FISA court with specific information showing the suspect is purposely switching means of communication to evade detection. The government has applied for roving wiretaps an average of 22 times a year since 2001.

Hinnen said, however, the administration is open to congressional amendments to the Patriot Act provisions, if they don’t hamper the ability of  law enforcement authorities to be effective.

House Judiciary Committee Chair John Conyers (D-Mich.) said he did not support reauthorizing the provisions without making some changes to them. He and Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said they were particularly concerned with the “lone wolf” provision, which has never been used.

“Now is the time to consider improving the Patriot Act, not just extending the provisions,” Conyers said at the House Judiciary constitution, civil rights and civil liberties subcommittee hearing.

Republicans said they supported the Justice Department’s position. The subcommittee ranking member, Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), even called Hinnen a “breath of fresh air.”

Conyers, however, was not as pleased with Hinnen, who has worked at the Justice Department since January.

“You know, you sound like a lot of people who come over here from DOJ, and yet you’ve been there for only a few months,” Conyers said at the hearing. “Do you think that’s a good thing or a bad thing?”

Hinnen reassured Democrats throughout his testimony that the Justice Department will be in close communication with Congress as it moves forward on Patriot Act legislation.

House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Lamar Smith (R-Texas) introduced a bill in March to reauthorize the provisions.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) introduced legislation Tuesday that would also reauthorizes the provisions, but allows Congress and the public to better monitor the use of the powers.

“This hearing is only the beginning of a process working closely together to create legislation that will maintain the operational effectiveness of these important [provisions] and protect the privacy and civil liberties of the American people,” Hinnen said in his testimony before the panel.

The LA Time’s Josh Meyer reports that Todd Hinnen, deputy assistant attorney general for law and policy in the department’s National Security Division, slammed the Bush-era terrorism policies as “lawless” in a Tuesday speech.  Hinnen delivered his assessment to an audience at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. His remarks “went well beyond some of the earlier criticisms of the Bush administration by President Obama and his political appointees,” Meyer writes. Hinnen said the DOJ is still trying to deal with the fallout, which he said had damaged the U.S.’s working relationships abroad. Read the story here.