ALA: House Committee Revives Protections in Patriot Act Renewal
Bill passes 16-10 in committee, but must pass full House, Senate
Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 11/6/2009
- Increased protections for library, bookstore records
- More safeguards regarding gag orders
- Further debate coming in House
- Senate committee passed narrower reforms
While the American Library Association has expressed dismay that Senate Judiciary Committee did not reform the USA PATRIOT Act sufficiently, the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee has passed the USA PATRIOT Amendments Act of 2009, praised by ALA and the Association of Research Libraries (ARL).
“Chairman [John] Conyers and other leaders in the House Judiciary Committee conducted a thorough, open debate of H.R. 3845,” ALA President Camila Alire said. “The weak bill the Senate released after closed-door negotiations would not provide library patrons with privacy online, but H.R. 3845 includes many provisions that will re-establish the balance between the needs of law enforcement and the rights of the American public.”
New provisions
H.R. 3845, which passed 16-10, would restore reader privacy, ALA said, "by curbing the use of secret court orders and National Security Letters [NSLs] to obtain library and bookstore records about innocent people." It also would give those receiving gag orders more opportunity to challenge them in court and to have more thorough judicial review of those orders.
According to the Judiciary Committee:























