You mean you haven't heard of the water saving toilets? Regular toilets which use 5 gallons of water to flush have been illegal in the US for years. As I said, I don't understand why people put up with the current level of intrusion into our personal life.
The Patriot Act doesn't come close to being as intrusive as some already existing laws, and it has an important purpose: saving us from terrorists.
But I don't think the government should make laws which basically try to "save us from ourselves".
Here is a bill that was tried to repeal it, but it didn't work, apparently:
Bill introduced to repeal low-flow toilet requirement
November 1999
U.S. Water News Online
WASHINGTON --Plunger wielding frequent flushers across America have found an ally in Congressman Joe Knollenberg. The Michigan Republican has sponsored a bill (HR 623) to repeal a 1994 federal law requiring "low-flow" toilets.
The puzzle that toilet manufacturers have faced since 1994 is how to flush away excrement, toilet tissue, and whatever else goes into a toilet bowl, with only 1.6 gallons of water.
Compare that to commodes manufactured in the 1980s that used 3.5 gallons, or toilets from the 1970s that sent 5 to 7 gallons rushing through the bowl.
"The problem is the flush from a 1.6-gallon toilet does not have the capacity to move solid waste -- it doesn't have the gravitational push," Welday confirmed.
What the 1.6-gallon gallon toilet does do is conserve water. That's why the environmentally friendly law was put into place five years ago. Basically, the law says that builders must install 1.6-gallon toilets in all dwellings constructed after 1994.
http://www.uswaternews.com/archives/arcpolicy/9bilint11.html