Culmination of Reader Privacy Efforts to Come in Mid-December

With the U.S. House of Representatives adjourned until Tuesday, December 6, and the Senate not reconvening until Monday, December 12, a vote on the USA Patriot Act conference committee draft is expected to come sometime in mid-December. To ensure Congress accepts a Patriot Act bill that protects readers' right to privacy, the sponsors of the Campaign for Reader Privacy (CRP) are asking supporters to be ready for a final big push in the coming weeks. The 16 sunsetting provisions of the Patriot Act, including Section 215, are set to expire on December 31, 2005.

Two weeks ago, as a result of the outcry from free speech advocates, civil liberties groups, and others, on Friday, November 18, Congress postponed a vote on the draft USA Patriot Act conference committee report until after the Thanksgiving recess.

The late rally in the favor of reader privacy proponents began after the House-Senate conference committee produced a draft conference report that, among other things, failed to include previously approved, critical protections for bookstore and library records in the final version. As it currently stands, the conference report does not include a Senate provision limiting searches to the records of suspected terrorists. The bill outlines a new procedure that would allow recipients of Section 215 orders to challenge them in the secret FISA court, but the exact mechanism for such an appeal remains unclear. The bill makes permanent many Patriot Act provisions and resets the sunset provision of Section 215 to expire in seven years -- three years longer than the Senate recommended and the House approved in a motion to instruct the conferees.

The news of the legislation spurred a public outcry from numerous free speech and civil liberties groups, including CRP, and on Friday morning, November 18, a bipartisan group of 10 House and Senate members, including Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA), held a press conference to announce their contention that the current draft needed further revision.

Opponents of the Patriot Act conference committee draft want Congress to change the language of the Patriot Act conference report to reflect these concerns:

• The current draft requires that in requesting a secret FISA court order for records the FBI need only present facts establishing that the request is "relevant" to a national security investigation. This is a lower and less protective standard than the Senate version of the bill that required the FBI to demonstrate a connection between the records sought and a terrorist organization or a suspected terrorist. CRP wants the Senate language.





• The current draft has seven-year sunsets: CRP wants a four-year sunset that will make it possible to correct an abuse of Section 215 at an earlier date.

The sponsors of the Campaign for Reader Privacy are the American Booksellers Association, the American Library Association, the Association of American Publishers, and PEN American Center.

To read more about CRP's efforts, go to news.bookweb.org/freeexpression/.