Counterterrorism director says Patriot Act expiration would be 'extremely problematic'

The director of the National Counterterrorism Center on Wednesday said it would be “extremely problematic” if provisions in the Patriot Act were allowed to expire later this month. 

“The Patriot Act remains a very important tool, especially with respect to homegrown extremists,” Michael Leiter said during testimony before the House Homeland Security Committee. 

“From my perspective to have the Patriot Act expire on February 28 would be extremely problematic. It would reduce our ability to detect terrorists,” Leiter said.

More than two-dozen Republicans on Tuesday voted against a measure extending expiring provisions of the Bush-era Patriot Act through December. That prevented the bill from gaining the two-thirds majority it needed to advance under a suspension of the rules.

Rep. Scott Rigell (R-Va.) voted for the measure, but raised concerns at Wednesday’s hearing about how officials were attempting to strike a balance between privacy and security. 

Leiter said that there are strict oversight measures in place to ensure that abuses don’t occur. 

“In fundamentally all of these provisions, there is a vigorous set of oversight, both within the Executive Branch but also through the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court,” Leiter said. “So in the case of business records, a showing must be shown to the FISA court of the appropriateness of the order and they then also can do oversight of those records and the like.”