Patriot Act House Conferee Appointments Remain on Hold

Despite reports last week that the appointment of U.S. House conferees, who will take up USA Patriot Act reauthorization, was imminent, they had still not been chosen when Congress recessed for the Columbus Day and Yom Kippur holidays. Since the House must be in session when the conferees are chosen, they cannot be selected before Congress meets again next week.

Once appointed House conferees will meet with their Senate counterparts to reconcile their different versions of the Patriot Act reauthorization bill.

The sponsors of the Campaign for Reader Privacy (CRP) -- the American Booksellers Association, the Association of American Publishers, the American Library Association, and PEN American Center -- support the Senate bill, S. 1389, which provides more stringent safeguards to reader privacy than its House counterpart. The Senate legislation 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 encourages its supporters to contact Senate conferees to urge them to push for the 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.)

For more about CRP and the Patriot Act, go to www.bookweb.org/read/7679.