The Patriot Act faced serious challenges recently from Congress and the courts in what some are calling a turning point in the debate over the controversial law. Meanwhile, after running into attacks for Patriot II, Attorney General John Ashcroft plans a roadshow to gather support for Patriot III, legislation being prepared by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) that would further expand the federal government's powers.

Pressure is mounting on Capitol Hill to declassify the blanked out 28-page section of the congressional joint report on intelligence failures before and after the events of September 11, 2001. Nearly half of the members of the U.S. Senate called on the administration to declassify more of the report. According to the Federation of American Scientists' Secrecy News, 46 senators signed a letter asking the Administration to declassify the 28 pages. This letter comes after Sens. Bob Graham (D-FL) and Richard Shelby (R-AL) vocally pushed to make more of the report available to the public.

Industry’s willingness to use homeland security as an excuse to expand secrecy and limit public access to information is apparent in the American Chemistry Council’s (ACC) comments on the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) proposed Critical Infrastructure Information (CII) rule. While DHS has yet to decide on when to allow access to the docket of public comments on the proposed CII rule, OMB Watch was able to obtain a copy of ACC’s comments.