ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline Volume 13, Number 75 October 6, 2004 In This Issue: Call Senators TODAY about S. 2845, the National Intelligence Reform Act of 2004 Libraries are asked to contact Senators today on the National Intelligence Reform Act of 2004 (S.2845). ALA has taken no position on S. 2845, except for on the following amendments. Urge Senators to vote "no" on the following amendments: McCain (number not known). McCain's amendment effectively requires states to issue driver's licenses that conform to a federal standard - a national ID through the back door. Once federalized, licenses would become the key to access other personal information about the holder that would be inevitably linked to the driver's license. Stevens #3839. This amendment would delete the provision of the bill that requires making the overall figure for the intelligence budget public, while still keeping details classified, as specifically recommended by the 9-11 Commission. Americans have a right to know how their tax dollars are spent, and this amendment should be rejected. Stevens #3827. This amendment would gut the already very modest protections for the proposed information sharing network in section 206 of the bill. The amendment eliminates requirements to create guidelines to protect individuals' privacy and civil liberties, control access to data, and establish useful ways to share information in the network, and should be rejected. Urge them to vote "yes" on the following amendments: Harkin #3821. This amendment would improve reporting on civil liberties matters by the civil liberties board, and explicitly allow for minority reports to be issued. The amendment strengthens the board and should be adopted. Leahy #3913. This amendment provides that the civil liberties board has power to seek enforcement of its subpoenas, rather than leaving that power only to the Department of Justice, whose activities the board may be reviewing. It strengthens the board and should be adopted. Leahy #3916. This amendment would require that the Privacy and Civil Liberties board assess whether the appropriate safeguards are built into the information sharing network to ensure individuals' privacy and civil liberties are protected when intelligence and law enforcement information is shared in the network established by the bill. You may call your Senators TOLL-FREE at 1-800-839-5276. Or send your Senator a letter through the legislative action center at: Thank you. ****** 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.