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UPDATE: Campaign for Reader Privacy
August 24, 2005
Story Continued...
The following press release was issued by the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression:
Washington, DC, August 24, 2005-In the final weeks of their two and a half
year battle to restore the protections for reader privacy that were
eliminated by the USA PATRIOT Act, organizations representing booksellers,
librarians, publishers and writers today urged their supporters to continue
pushing for the Senate version of legislation re-authorizing expiring
sections of the PATRIOT Act. That version, in contrast to the unacceptable
House bill, includes significant new protections for bookstore and library
records and resets the clock for the records section to expire in three
years. Supporters of reader privacy should be calling their House and
Senate representatives to ask them to endorse letters being circulated by
Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Larry Craig
(R-ID) that call on members of the House and Senate conference committee to
adopt the Senate bill. The conferees are expected to meet soon after
Congress returns from its August recess. (http://www.house.gov/)
Although S. 1389 (USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act)
does not address all of the book community’s concerns, it provides a more
stringent standard to which the FBI must adhere when seeking bookstore and
library records under Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act. Under Section 215,
the FBI may demand any records that are “relevant” to a terrorism or
espionage investigation, including the records of people who are not
suspected of committing a crime. While the House bill maintains this overly
broad standard, S. 1389 requires the FBI to provide facts indicating that
the person whose records are sought is a terrorist, the agent of a foreign
power or someone who is an acquaintance of a person suspected of terrorism
or espionage.
The Campaign for Reader Privacy strongly believes that S. 1389 is
the logical choice of the conferees because it passed with the unanimous
consent of the Senate, while the House was deeply divided over its bill.
Indeed, the House had voted 238-187 on June 15 to provide greater
protections for reader privacy. However, the conference committee can adopt
the House bill if it chooses.
The Campaign for Reader Privacy is also urging its supporters to
contact the Senate conferees to urge them to push for S. 1389. They are
Arlen Specter (R-PA), Pat Roberts (R-KS), Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Michael
DeWine (R-OH), Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Patrick Leahy (D-VT),
Edward Kennedy (D-MA), Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and Carl Levin (D-MI). The
House conferees have not been chosen yet. (http://www.senate.gov/)