Sanders Offers Amendment to Protect Reading Records during Patriot Act Reauthorization

Sanders Offers Amendment to Protect Reading Records during Patriot Act Reauthorization
7/19/2005

Washington, DC-Today, Congressman Sanders will submit an amendment to the Patriot Act Reauthorization bill that would restore Americans' constitutionally guaranteed right to read and access information without governmental intrusion or monitoring. The amendment is substantively identical to legislation Sanders offered and the House approved in June as part of Justice Department appropriations bill. The version passed in June would protect Americans' reading records during the year-long life of that spending bill. The amendment Sanders is advancing this week would make those protections permanent. Sanders' June amendment received overwhelming bipartisan support, passing with the support of 199 Democrats and 38 Republicans.

Sanders amendment will be presented today to the House Committee on Rules, which is composed of 9 Republicans and 4 Democrats. The Republican members are hand-picked by the Republican leadership. The Rules committee will meet at 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday to determine whether they will allow the House to vote on the various amendments that will be submitted to it. Congressman Sanders is expected to testify before the committee during the hearing. However, there is growing concern that the Republican leadership will use its absolute control over the amendment process to keep the Sanders amendment and other amendments they oppose from being considered on the floor of the House.

Sanders said, "Just last month, the House overwhelmingly approved my amendment to protect Americans' reading records. It is clear that the Members of U.S. House does not want government agents snooping around people's library and bookstore records. It would be an unconscionable abuse of power for the Republican-controlled Rules Committee to deny our United States Representatives the opportunity to vote on this amendment."

Sanders' amendment addresses Section 215 of the Patriot Act which enables federal agents to get orders from a secret court that allows them to access, among other things, the reading records of Americans in both libraries and bookstores. Because these orders are granted by a secret court, the people whose records are sought have no opportunity to oppose the order. In most cases the person whose records are acquired would never know it because the law itself makes it a criminal offense for the librarian or bookseller to tell anyone about the order.

The House is currently considering a bill to reauthorize the USA Patriot Act. Numerous sections including Section 215 are scheduled to sunset at the end of this year if not reauthorized. Sanders' previously-passed appropriations amendment effectively prohibits the government from using these secret court orders to gain access to Americans' reading records in FY06. The passage of this amendment as part of the Patriot Act reauthorization would make these safeguards permanent.

Sanders said, "As Congress considers making section 215 and other sections of the Patriot Act permanent, the House deserves to have a fair and open debate. The freedoms enshrined in our Constitution are more important that petty partisan games."

http://bernie.house.gov/documents/releases/20050719170853.asp