The "PATROIT" act did have sunset clauses. It kept getting re-uped but finally expired on March 15th, 2020 mainly due to Trump's veto threat. The vote on the bi

The "PATROIT" act did have sunset clauses. It kept getting re-uped but finally expired on March 15th, 2020 mainly due to Trump's veto threat. The vote on the bill to extend the act was indefinitely postponed.[1] So you are right that having those sunset clauses are important. That being said, many of the surveillance provisions in the act were retained in other bills and the history and current situation is pretty complicated[2]. [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriot_Act#Section_expirations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriot_Act#Section_expiration... [2]https://www.justsecurity.org/78753/rethinking-surveillance-on-the-20th-anniversary-of-the-patriot-act/ https://www.justsecurity.org/78753/rethinking-surveillance-o...