ALA: Patriot Act Compromise Inadequate

-- Library Journal, 12/12/2005

Though House and Senate negotiators on December 8 agreed to extend the USA PATRIOT Act, with some compromises from the previous position, six senators (three each Democrat and Republican) deem the agreement inadequate and plan to filibuster the conference report when it comes to the Senate this coming week. The American Library Association (ALA) is urging library advocates to lobby legislators to support those senators. "This is not a deal," Emily Sheketoff, executive director of ALA's Washington Office told LJ. "I don't think they're seriously looking at our main objections. If all they're doing is saying, 'We want to go home for Christmas,' okay, pass a continuing resolution and let's come back in January and get serious."

According the compromise, Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which permits secret searches of business records at libraries, bookstores, and other institutions, would be reevaluated in four years, as the Senate had requested; an earlier compromise was for seven years, as the House of Representatives had agreed to ten years. Despite that victory, Sheketoff noted that no changes were made to the standards for conducting those searches, nor for those for obtaining National Security Letters (NSLs). And there's no sunset provision for the section that authorizes such NSLs. Sheketoff noted that Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) has proposed a bill that calls for a three-month continuing resolution for legislators to reexamine the issue. "The reason we make a big stink about sunset is that the only time you can get Congress to focus on this is when they are going to expire," she said. The House is scheduled to vote December 14, and the Senate after that.