You might have thought the USA Patriot Act was a Bush-era law passed in the wake of fear and insecurity surrounding the events of Sept. 9, 2001, and that a change in administration would mean a change in the law.

Think again.

The USA Patriot Act has just been renewed and re-signed into law by President Obama.

Key provisions of the Patriot Act were set to expire Dec. 31, 2009. Some Democrats, such as Sen. Russ Feingold, pushed for broad reforms of the law. The Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Sen. Patrick Leahy, balked at Feingold’s proposals.

Broad reforms couldn’t get through the Senate, the committee concluded. It passed out a milder version, with limited reforms.

The House then balked. Democrats there wanted broader reforms. The Senate tried to tack its bill onto a Pentagon appropriations bill. The House fumed. A two-month extension to the Dec. 31 was agreed on.

That extended deadline expired Feb. 28. Two days earlier, on Feb. 26, Congress agreed to kick the can further down the road, extending the deadline a full year. President Obama quickly signed the bill.

At play here is reluctance to press for any civil liberties reforms. The Obama administration has been hammered for insisting on court trials for alleged 9/11 perpetrators (rather than sticking with Bush-era military tribunals). Reforming the Patriot Act, to better protect Americans against the myriad documented abuses of National Security Letters and other practices, just wasn’t in the political cards.

Learn more about the Patriot Act and the ACLU’s work to reform it.