ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline
Volume 13, Number 44
July 6, 2004

In This Issue: REMINDER: Please contact Representatives about amendment to CJS appropriations bill

This ALAWON is a reminder about the alert we sent out last Thursday. If you have already called your Representative, thank you. If you have not yet made that call, please do so right away.

On Wednesday, July 7, or Thursday, July 8, Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) will introduce an amendment to the House Commerce, Justice, State (CJS) appropriations bill, which funds the Justice Department, barring the Department from using any of the appropriated money to search bookstore and library records under Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act. As you recall, Rep. Sanders introduced the Freedom to Read Protection Act (H.R. 1157) last year. It exempts bookstore and library records from searches under Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act.  Although the bill has 145 co-sponsors in both parties, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee has refused to hold a hearing on it.

We urge you to call your Representative and ask her or him to support the Sanders-Paul-Conyers-Otter-Nadler Freedom to Read Amendment to the Commerce, Justice, State, and Judiciary Appropriations (CJS) bill when it comes to the floor. For contact information, please go to < www.ala.org/ala/washoff/washingtonoffice.htm > and enter your zipcode to go to the Legislative Action Center.

The text of the amendment reads: "None of the funds available may be used to make an application under section 501 of FISA to require the production of library circulation records, library patron lists, library Internet records, bookseller sales records, or bookseller customer lists." Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act amends Section 501 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which is why this language refers to "section 501 of FISA."

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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; Carol Ashworth, Camille Bowman, Don Essex, Joshua Farrelman, Patrice McDermott and Miriam Nisbet. Office for Information Technology Policy: Rick Weingarten, Director; Carrie Lowe, Kathy Mitchell, Carrie Russell. ALAWON Editor: Bernadette Murphy.