May 26, 2011 5:32PM # ‘Wait and Hurry Up’ in Debate over Patriot Act By [Caleb O. Brown](https://www.cato.org/people/caleb-o-brown) --- SHARE If Senate leaders believed that expiring portions of the Patriot Act constituted an immediate increase in the risk of terrorism, it’s amazing that they waited until now to even nod toward debating the law’s renewal. A few thoughts from Cato Research Fellow Julian Sanchez on the current Patriot Act debate ripped from [today’s podcast](https://www.cato.org/multimedia/daily-podcast/senate-leaders-stifle-debate-over-patriot-act): > … Democrats have had no interest in pointing out how closely President Obama has followed the playbook written by George (W.) Bush. And of course Republicans are the ones who helped write that playbook, so they don’t have much interest in revisiting it. On Section 215 of the Patriot Act: > It seems extremely likely from what we know so far that this business records authority has been transformed into a large-scale people-tracking authority. … It strikes me as extraordinarily subject to abuse. It strikes me as a dangerous power to grant, even in this most vital task. [Listen to the whole thing](https://www.cato.org/multimedia/daily-podcast/senate-leaders-stifle-debate-over-patriot-act). And [subscribe](http://feeds.cato.org/CatoDailyPodcast) ([iTunes](http://itunes.apple.com/podcast/cato-daily-podcast/id158961219)). ##### Related Tags [Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law), [Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies](https://www.cato.org/robert-levy-center-constitutional-studies) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).