According to politifact.com, then-candidate Barack Obama ran on the platform that as president, he "would revisit the PATRIOT Act to ensure that there is real and robust oversight of tools like National Security Letters, sneak-and-peek searches, and the use of the material witness provision."
But in May of this year, minutes before some provisions of the act were set to expire, President Obama signed a four-year extension into law, according to The Huffington Post.
"It's an important tool for us to continue dealing with an ongoing terrorist threat," Obama said at the time.
The act is not without its opponents.
Congressmen Ron Paul (R-TX), himself a candidate for the Republican nomination to run for the President of the United States, voted against the act in 2001 and has been against it since.
"The 4th Amendment is rather clear, it says that we should be secure in our papers, our person, our homes and our effects," Paul said in February, voicing opposition to extending the act. "But let's say a law makes us somewhat safer. Is that a justification for the government to do anything they want? For instance, if you want to be perfectly safe from child abuse and wife beating, the government could put a camera in every one of our houses and our bedrooms and maybe there would be somebody made safer this way. But what would you be giving up?"
