On Capitol Hill, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence met in secret Tuesday and approved expanding the Patriot Act to make it easier for the government to secretly gather records on individuals without a court order or grand jury subpoena. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, the bill would give the government unilateral power to let agents seize personal records from medical facilities, libraries, hotels, gun dealers, banks and any other businesses without any specific facts connecting those records to any criminal activity or a foreign agent.