[OPLINLIST] FW: [ALA-WO:212] PATRIOT Act Update

[Kent Oliver]

FYI, Kent
 
 

Kent Oliver, Executive Director 
Stark County District Library 
715 Market Ave., N., Canton, OH 44702 
W: 330 458 2710 FAX: 330 455 9596 
KOliver at starklibrary.org <mailto:KOliver at starklibrary.org>  
" If God had him no balls and two strikes, he'd still get a hit." -
American League umpire Steve Palermo on George Brett

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-ala-wo at ala.org [mailto:owner-ala-wo at ala.org] On Behalf Of
ALAWASH E-MAIL
Sent: Tuesday, January 03, 2006 5:37 PM
To: ALA Washington Office Newsline
Subject: [ALA-WO:212] PATRIOT Act Update


ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline

Volume 15, Number 2

January 3, 2006

 

In This Issue: PATRIOT Update

 

Happy New Year! 

 

The end of 2005 brought good news on the PATRIOT Act front. On 

December 16 the Senate voted down cloture (to close debate) and 

was able to sustain a filibuster that blocked passage of the 

flawed Conference Report. On the evening of December 21st, the 

Senate voted to extend the PATRIOT Act for six months to ensure a 

more comprehensive debate.  But Representative Sensenbrenner in 

the  House objected to such a long extension, so both Houses of 

Congress agreed to extend the PATRIOT Act until February 3, 2006 

to allow further debate on the Conference Report.

 

The Congress now has five more weeks in which to debate 

controversial PATRIOT provisions. This good news is in large 

measure a result of YOUR work. Thank you! A strong grassroots push 

from the library community and other concerned constituents helped 

Senators stand firm in their conviction that the conference report 

did not do enough to secure reader privacy. Your efforts sent a 

strong message to Congress that the American people will not 

accept passage of important legislation like the PATRIOT reauthorization


without a full and open debate. 

 

When the Congress re-convenes this month, debate on PATRIOT Act
legislation 

will continue. Please keep up the pressure on members of Congress 

by encouraging them to continue to fight for the following:

 

1.  The ability for a Section 215 recipient to pose a meaningful 

challenge of a FISA Court order.

2.  The ability for a Section 505 recipient to pose a meaningful 

challenge to a National Security Letter (administrative subpoena). 

3.  Language requiring that records sought under a Section 215 

order be described with "sufficient particularity" to prevent 

government fishing expeditions. 

 

Capitol Switchboard number is: 202-224-3121.

 

 

Thank you again for all your hard work! You've truly made a 

difference in this important debate. We will keep you updated as 

this issue develops. 

 

 

 

******

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 at ala.org or go to 

http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon.  To unsubscribe to ALAWON, send 

the message: unsubscribe ala-wo to listproc at 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, Melanie Anderson, 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.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.oplin.org/mailman/private/oplinlist/attachments/20060104/a0160f18/attachment.html