ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline Volume 14, Number 74 August 2, 2005 In This Issue: Senator Durbin Dedicates PATRIOT Success to ALA We want to share with you this clip from the remarks of Sen. Richard Durbin (IL) on the Senate floor during discussion of the USA PATRIOT and Terrorism Prevention Reauthorization Act of 2005. Let me say a word as I close. One of the most unlikely groups became so important in this debate--the American Library Association. I cannot recall a time in recent memory when this organization showed such leadership. Time and again, they came forward to tell us that they wanted to protect the privacy of their patrons at libraries across America who might come in and take out a magazine or book, and they certainly didn't want to do that with the knowledge that the Government could sweep up all of the library records and sift through them to see if anybody had checked out a suspicious book. They sent us petitions gathered from libraries across the Nation, and I think they really did good work on behalf of our Constitution and our rights and liberties guaranteed under the Bill of Rights. I wish to dedicate any success we have with this revision of the PATRIOT Act to the American Library Association and all those who stood with them in asking that we make meaningful changes to the act without eliminating the important provisions that continue to make America safe. Source: Congressional Record, July 29, 2005, S9561. ****** 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; Web site: http://www.ala.org/washoff. Executive Director: Emily Sheketoff. Office of Government Relations: Lynne Bradley, Director; 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.