CRP Petitions Presented to Sanders, Craig, and Senate Conferees

Joanne Leedom-Ackerman of PEN American Center, ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz, AAP President and CEO Patricia Schroeder, and Lynne Bradley, ALA's director of government relations, presented CRP petitions to Senator Larry Craig (R-ID), one of the Congressional leaders in the fight to restore reader privacy.

On Tuesday, September 13, ABA and its co-sponsors in the Campaign for Reader Privacy (CRP) delivered to Congressional leaders petitions bearing over 200,000 signatures of supporters who are demanding that Congress restore their right to reader privacy, which has been eliminated by Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act.

Representatives of CRP, including ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz, presented petitions to Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID), co-sponsor of the Security and Freedom Enhancement Act (S. 737), and to Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), sponsor of the Freedom to Read Protection Act (H.R. 1157). Petitions were also presented to Senate conferees who will soon be meeting with their House counterparts to reconcile their two different bills reauthorizing the expiring sections of the Patriot Act.

"We are proud to present these petitions to Congress on behalf of the hundreds of bookstores and libraries around the country who participated enthusiastically in the reader privacy petition campaign," said Domnitz.

Former Congresswoman Pat Schroeder, who heads the Association of American Publishers (AAP), stressed the significance of the petitions even this late in the legislative process, as a reminder to members of Congress that "real people out there care deeply about their privacy and freedom to read."

CRP is a joint initiative of ABA, AAP, the American Library Association, and PEN American Center.

In a joint statement, the organizations said that they were encouraged that both the House and Senate bills include a number of the safeguards they have been seeking for the past 19 months. However, the groups strongly favor the Senate bill, S. 1389, which restricts bookstore and library searches under Section 215 of the Patriot Act to the records of people who are suspected terrorists or people who are in contact with them.

CRP is urging its supporters to contact Senate conferees to urge them to push for S. 1389. Senate conferees 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). (Contact information is available on the Senate website.)

The House conferees have not been chosen yet, but CRP is asking booksellers to contact their representatives to ask them to sign a letter that Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is circulating, which calls on the conferees who will reconcile the House and Senate versions of the reauthorization bill to adopt the provisions of S. 1389. For a list of House members who voted for the Freedom to Read Amendment, but who have yet to sign the Sanders' letter to conferees, click here.

More information about CRP and Section 215 of the Patriot Act is available on BookWeb.org. --David Grogan