There's a move afoot on Capitol Hill to rein in some of the vast powers
conferred upon government investigators by the PATRIOT Act, the infamous,
hastily crafted law written in response to the September 11th attacks. New legislation has
been introduced in both Houses of Congress intended to curb the FBI's ability to
collect private data on virtually anybody using a tool called a national
security letter (NSL). The bills come in the wake of yet another damaging FBI
inspector general report on the bureau's abuse of its expanded
authorities.