ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline Volume 12, Number 88 September 28, 2003 In This Issue: ACTION ALERT The Attorney General has characterized ALA and librarians in general as "dupes" of civil liberties groups (i.e., we are too dumb to figure out the problems with the USA PATRIOT Act ourselves and are easily misled) and as "hysterical." Please contact your Senators to tell them how you feel about the portrayal of librarians by the Attorney General. You know what to say. We also ask that you inform them of how important the protection of the privacy of library users is and ask for their support of legislation that would restore that protection. BACKGROUND There is a developing bi-partisan interest in the Senate for legislation, possibly an amendment to the Senate FY 2004 appropriations bill for the Departments of Commerce, Justice, and State (aka CJS), that would address the use of funds for implementation of FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) Court orders under Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act. ACTION Please call your Senators as soon as possible to let them know that you would like them to support legislation that seeks to recognize the problems of the PATRIOT Act related to libraries and library records. Advise them that you will be back in touch with them in the near future as legislation moves. It is most important that REPUBLICAN Senators hear from their constituents. You should ask them both for their support AND for them to let Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) (Chair of the Appropriations Committee) and Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH)(Chair of the CJS Appropriations Subcommittee) know of that support. Again, please emphasize that you will be following up with them. If you are calling Democratic Senators, ask them both for their support and for them to call Senators Patrick Leahy (Ranking Member of the Appropriations Committee), Ernest Hollings (Ranking Member of the CJS Appropriations Subcommittee), and Senator Tom Daschle (Minority Leader) to let them know of that support. Again, tell them you will be contacting them with further information. The CJS appropriations bill has already been marked-up, i.e. approved, in committee and will probably move to the floor of the Senate in the upcoming week. Therefore, all calls to your Senators, not just to members of the subcommittee or full Appropriations Committee, are important. There are a number of legislative options that are being explored in the Senate and it is difficult to sort them out and keep track of them. If you have any questions in preparing to make your calls, please call Patrice McDermott or Lynne Bradley at 1-800-941-8478. TALKING POINTS Before you make the call: To see if your state library association has endorsed the ALA resolution on the USA PATRIOT Act or passed one of its own, check http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=State_IFC_in_Action&Template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=29738. If your state association has taken such action, please share the language with your senators to demonstrate how important these issues are to the library community in your state. Also, share with the senate offices how many cities, towns, or counties have passed some type of anti-PATRIOT Act resolutions. Check http://www.bordc.org/OtherLocalEfforts.htm to identify your state's localities involved in the local resolutions effort. There are now over 160 cities, counties and other local governments across the country that have passed resolutions. Check www.ala.org/patriotfix (scroll down to the bottom of the page) for editorials/OpEds on the Freedom to Read Protection Act, H.R. 1157, (Rep. Sanders' bill in the House) to see if any media have done reports or editorials in your state. Even though you will be talking to Senators, it is important that they know of favorable media about any of the bills protecting the privacy of library users. If you think that you need to know more about the various bills that are already introduced, go to www.ala.org/patriotfix for side-by-side comparisons (scroll down to the bottom of the page). Tell your Senators how important it is to you that they support efforts to protect library users from overly-broad searches that would sweep in the records of all users in the effort to combat terrorism. Let them know that there is interest in the Senate on addressing concerns with the PATRIOT Act. Several bills have been introduced to modify the PATRIOT Act. Tell them that you urge the Senate to join the House and take steps to amend the PATRIOT Act to protect civil liberties. [Representative Sanders did get a Section 215 amendment passed in the House, on a voice vote on the Foreign Operations appropriations bill, prohibiting the State Department from expending appropriated funds to assist the DOJ in implementing FISA court orders in libraries or booksellers. Representative Butch Otter (R-ID) successfully attached an amendment to the Commerce, Justice, State appropriations bill which bars use of funds for "sneak-and-peak" (no contemporaneous announcement) searches.] Let them know that an amendment to deny funding for such broad searches will allow library users and your communities to feel secure in the use of libraries, and will allow Congress time to determine if such a broad power is really needed against libraries and booksellers. You should be prepared to respond to questions as to why such protection is needed, given that the Attorney General has said that the number of times that the FBI "has utilized Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act relating to the production of business records" to date is zero. Our response has been that, although the Attorney General says that the FBI has not utilized this authority to date for business records, they have the ability to require the production of any tangible thing through this section and to require information through other means - such as through National Security Letters (Section 505 of the USA PATRIOT Act). Moreover, the statement would seem to indicate that they do not need such broad authority, if they have not utilized it in almost two years. Hence, the Administration should not object to putting some reasonable restrictions on this power. The Capitol Switchboard Number is: (202) 224-3121. ADVOCATES SCHEDULE OCTOBER GRASSROOTS CONFERENCE TO FIGHT PATRIOT ACT THREATS A broad coalition of civil liberties, religious, and First Amendment organizations is sponsoring a conference on October 18-20, 2003, in Silver Spring, Md., just outside Washington, D.C. To find out more about the "Grassroots America Defends the Bill of Rights National Conference," go to: http://www.grassroots-america.org/ Speakers include Laura Murphy, Director of the ACLU Washington Office, Wade Henderson, National Conference on Civil Rights, and many representatives from Arab, Muslim, and religious organizations as well as people from local cities, towns and counties that have been working on anti-PATRIOT Act resolutions. ALA is one of the cosponsors of this conference. State library associations and other library advocates may wish to attend or watch for proceedings from this event. ****** ALAWON (ISSN 1069-7799) is a free, irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office. All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. To subscribe to ALAWON, send the message: subscribe ala-wo [your_firstname] [your_lastname] to listproc@ala.org or go to http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. To unsubscribe to ALAWON, send the message: unsubscribe ala-wo to listproc@ala.org. ALAWON archives at http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. ALA Washington Office, 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Suite 403, Washington, D.C. 20004-1701; phone: 202.628.8410 or 800.941.8478 toll-free; fax: 202.628.8419; e-mail: alawash@alawash.org; Web site: http://www.ala.org/washoff. Executive Director: Emily Sheketoff. Office of Government Relations: Lynne Bradley, Director; Camille Bowman, Mary Costabile, Don Essex, Patrice McDermott and Miriam Nisbet. Office for Information Technology Policy: Rick Weingarten, Director; Kathy Mitchell, Carrie Russell. ALAWON Editor: Bernadette Murphy.