This is a Jan. 9 draft of a new, "Son of Patriot Act" that would give the government even more domestic intelligence-gathering, surveillance and other powers, while decreasing public access to information and accountability.

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  • Generally increases powers under Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
  • "Wartime" emergency FISA wiretaps won't require declaration of war (103)
  • New "domestic security surveillance" powers (123)
  • Easier for government to get credit reports (126)
  • New "we ask, you can't tell" subpoena powers (128)
  • More secrecy about government detainees (201)
  • Return of "use crypto in a felony" sentence enhancement (404)
  • New Attorney General power to declare aliens removable as "danger to national security" (503)

"We're still reeling from the original USA-Patriot Act's impact on civil liberties and now the government wants more," said Cindy Cohn, EFF's Legal Director. "Where is the evidence that the law passed less than two years ago is insufficient? When will Congress draw the line and say 'this much of our civil liberties you've taken under the guise of terrorism -- you may have no more'?"

Many thanks to the Center for Public Integrity for initially publishing this document.