ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline
Volume 13, Number 
September 30, 2004

In This Issue: URGENT: Please Call Senators Today About Kyl Amendment

Please call your Senators TODAY and ask that they oppose the Kyl amendment to S. 2845, the "National Intelligence Reform Act of 2004." 

Senators Durbin (D-IL) and Craig (R-ID) are leading the opposition to the Kyl amendment, which contains the largest expansion of federal powers since the USA PATRIOT Act, with the most serious consequences for civil liberties that have been proposed since the demise of the much-maligned "Domestic Security Enhancement Act," also known as PATRIOT Act II. 

The issues proposed in the Kyl amendment go outside the scope of the 9/11 Commission's recommendations and should be debated next year during the debate on the PATRIOT Act. S. 2845 is too important to be bogged down with contentious amendments. 

If passed, the bill would weaken the public's right to privacy in their library, medical and other personal records by eliminating the already inadequate safeguard in the USA PATRIOT Act of an order by a secret court. 

For more information on this issue and background information on other privacy-related issues, please visit: <http://www.ala.org/ala/washoff/WOissues/civilliberties/privacy/privacyrelated.htm.>

Please call your Senators today and ask that they oppose the Kyl Amendment. The Capitol switchboard number is: 202-224-3121. 



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