Patriot Act Reauthorization Expected to Move to the Fore Next Week

Announcement of House Conferees Coming Soon

At press time, it was expected that the names of the U.S. House conferees, who will meet with their Senate counterparts to reconcile their different versions of the USA Patriot Act reauthorization bill, would be announced within the next several days. Barring last-minute scheduling changes, Patriot Act reauthorization will then be taken up in earnest next week, when staff members representing the conferees are scheduled to begin discussions. During the week of October 17, the conference committee is slated to convene to reconcile the bills.

With the committee meetings beginning next week, the Campaign for Reader Privacy (CRP) sponsors -- ABA, the Association of American Publishers, the American Library Association, and PEN American Center -- are urging supporters to contact conferees to ask them to push for 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.

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.)

Booksellers should be on the lookout for a special Bookselling This Week News Flash detailing the names of the House conferees within the next few days.

In related news, on October 4, a group of business associations, including the National Association of Manufacturers and the United States Chamber of Commerce, sent a letter to Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and to the other Senate conferees to "express ... support for reforms to Sections 215 and 505 of the Patriot Act, which allow the federal government to require voluminous and often sensitive records from American businesses, without judicial oversight or other meaningful checks on the government's power."

The organizations stressed that, while they stand with "all Americans in the war on terror," they are concerned that the "rights of businesses to confidential files -- records about our customers or our employees, as well as our trade secrets and other proprietary information -- can too easily be obtained and disseminated under investigative powers expanded by the Patriot Act. It is our belief that these new powers lack sufficient checks and balances."

In regards to Section 215, the organizations state that they support the revised amendment contained in the Senate bill, which requires "a statement of fact and some linkage between the records sought and an individual suspected of being a terrorist or spy."

Pointing out that making reforms to the business record provisions of the Patriot Act is "vital," the organizations said, "Businesses may face a loss of reputation, or litigation -- here or abroad -- for violating the privacy rights of others by complying with these provisions of the Patriot Act."

The groups concluded, "Reforming the Patriot Act is an important step to ensure that powerful law enforcement tools are focused on those who would do us harm and that privacy rights and businesses interests are protected by the checks and balances our Constitution demands." (To read the letter in full, click here.)

Other signatories of the letter are the Association of Corporate Counsel; Business Civil Liberties, Inc.; The Financial Services Roundtable; and the National Association of Realtors. --David Grogan