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Washington, D.C.: Republican Chair Silences Democrats at Meeting
June 17, 2005
PEN USA is shocked by the actions of Rep. James Sensenbrenner, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, who turned off Democrats’ microphones last Friday, and stormed out of a hearing about the Patriot Act.
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The Patriot Act, a series of counter-terrorism laws created by the Bush Administration after the September 11th terrorist attacks, is set to expire in September. The hearing was requested by Democrats, who said all the witnesses at the previous ten committee hearings about the Patriot Act supported the law. This time, the witnesses were groups such as Amnesty International USA, and other organizations that have protested the Patriot Act on civil rights and constitutional grounds.
According to what Rep. Jarrold Nadler, (D-NY) revealed to Jim Abrams of The Associated Press, Rep. Sensenbrenner (R- Wis.) was acting rudely, and cut people off in mid-sentence with “an attitude of total hostility.”
The panel ended when Sensenbrenner, one of the original authors of the Patriot Act, walked out. Other Republicans followed, leaving Democrats to protest into turned-off microphones.
Nadler raised his voice as his microphone flickered on and off. Abrams quoted Nadler as saying, “We are not besmirching the honor of the United States. We are trying to uphold it.”
According to reports, Rep. Mike Pence, (R-Ind), accused Amnesty International of endangering American armed forces by speaking out against Guantanamo Bay, and then the hearing unraveled from there. Sensenbrenner did not allow Amnesty International’s representative to respond until Nadler raised a point of decency.
PEN USA is dismayed that even in the halls of our own government, the free speech of our elected representatives is threatened. By turning off the microphones and stalking out of the meeting, Rep. Sensenbrenner denied those speaking the right to be heard. The president of the Arab American Institute was a witness at the hearing. “I’m troubled by what kind of lesson this gives,” he told the Democrats remaining in the room after Sensenbrenner left.
House Democratic leader, Nancy Pelosi, said in a statement that she would ask House Speaker Dennis Hastert to order an apology from Sensenbrenner.
(source: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/061105Y.shtml)
Recommended Action:
Write House Speaker Dennis Hastert, supporting Nancy Pelosi’s request for an apology from Sensenbrenner—and asserting that this sort of action against free speech can not be tolerated.
Representative J. Dennis Hastert
235 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: 202-225-2976
Fax: 202-225-0697
Electronic: http://www.house.gov/hastert/write1.shtml