The Patriot Act
By: Leah Heisey
Step One:Recognizing the Problem/Setting the Agenda
Step Two: Formulating the Policy
Step Three:Adopting the Policy
Adopting the policy is a very important step in the Public Policy Making Process. I think that the Patriot Act is a regulatory policy. It is a regulatory policy because it is regulating, in this case, weapons, security, and surveillance. It is where it actually gets enough support to go through the official process in becoming a policy by the government. It may take the form of an actual legislation, executive order, or may become a court decision. This process may take a very long time because not all steps of a policy may be passed at once and it may be a complex procedure. President Bush signed it into law in Washington D.C. on October 26, 2001. Since this act is very controversial for various reasons, it was surprising that the initial bill even made it through Congress. It went through the legislative process in a matter of 3 days. After it passed the legislation process, that is when the president signed it and then it goes to Federal Court to officially become a policy. This bill was later re-evaluated and a new version was passed a few years later by Barack Obama.
Step Four:Implementing the Policy
Step Five:Evaluating the Policy
Finally, after all of those steps we come to the final step of evaluating the policy. This basically just shows the pros and cons of the newly passed policy. It weighs the costs and benefits and sometimes depending on the results, the policy will be put up for revision. A burden or cost of the Patriot Act, especially according to the citizens is violation of privacy. Some innocent people feel slightly violated by this policy and the sneak and peek searches that may occur at times. While this may seem unfair to them, they need to try their best to understand the main idea of this policy, which is their own safety! I personally would choose safety from terrorists or any harmful people over my own privacy. A satisfaction, or benefit from this policy is the increased surveillance, national security, and safety. The people involved have tried their best to enforce this and keep our Nation as safe as possible. This policy is very reassuring to people, because of the promises it makes to keep us safe from terrorists and anything like 9/11 from ever happening again.
Citations
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“George W. Bush signs USA Patriot Act." Photos/Illustrations. UPI. American Government. ABC-CLIO, 2014. Web. 13 Nov. 2014.
"How Did the PATRIOT Act Make Its Way Through Congress?" An Occasional
Discussion of Politics. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2014.
"Civil Rights Concerns in the Metropolitan Washington, D.C., Area in the
Aftermath of the September 11, 2001, Tragedies." U.S. Commission on Civil
Rights. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2014. <http://www.usccr.gov/pubs/sac/
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"Reclaiming Patriotism." American Civil Liberties Union. N.p., Mar. 2009. Web.
14 Nov. 2014. <http://www.aclu.org/files/pdfs/safefree/
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"JIM'S WEEKLY COLUMN Combating Abuse of Patriot Act."
http://sensenbrenner.house.gov. N.p., 17 June 2013. Web. 4 Dec.
2014. <http://sensenbrenner.house.gov/news/
documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=339292>.