For immediate release:
November 6, 2009
For more information, contact:
Brandon Butler
ARL Law & Policy Fellow
Association of Research Libraries
202-296-2296
brandon@arl.org
Jenni Terry
ALA Washington Office Press Officer
American Library Association
202-628-8410
jterry@alawash.org
Washington DC--The House of Representatives Judiciary Committee’s passage of the USA PATRIOT Amendments Act of 2009 (H.R. 3845) Thursday put Congress back on track to achieve comprehensive reform of our nation’s surveillance laws, say the American Library Association (ALA) and the Association of Research Libraries (ARL).
“Chairman Conyers and other leaders in the House Judiciary Committee conducted a thorough, open debate of H.R. 3845,” ALA President Camila Alire said. “The weak bill the Senate released after closed-door negotiations would not provide library patrons with privacy online, but H.R. 3845 includes many provisions that will re-establish the balance between the needs of law enforcement and the rights of the American public.”
H.R. 3845 would restore reader privacy by curbing the use of secret court orders and National Security Letters to obtain library and bookstore records about innocent people. Other key protections in the bill include improved judicial review of investigations, new protections for librarians and others who receive gag orders from the government, and more oversight of how PATRIOT Act powers are being used.
The committee also approved an amendment from Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) expressing the sense of Congress that the President should periodically review secret surveillance programs to determine whether they should remain classified. The committee rejected several amendments that would have watered down or eliminated the bill’s civil liberties protections.
“We are grateful to the members of the House Judiciary Committee for reporting a bill that goes a long way toward restoring our civil liberties. We especially appreciate Mr. Nadler’s passionate defense of reader privacy during Wednesday’s mark-up,” said ARL President Brinley Franklin. “We urge the full House to pass these balanced reforms, and we hope the Senate will amend its bill to include similar provisions.”
The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 124 research libraries in North America. Its mission is to influence the changing environment of scholarly communication and the public policies that affect research libraries and the diverse communities they serve. ARL pursues this mission by advancing the goals of its member research libraries, providing leadership in public and information policy to the scholarly and higher education communities, fostering the exchange of ideas and expertise, facilitating the emergence of new roles for research libraries, and shaping a future environment that leverages its interests with those of allied organizations. ARL is on the Web at http://www.arl.org/.
The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit professional organization of more than 65,000 librarians, library trustees, and other friends of libraries dedicated to providing and improving library services and promoting the public interest in a free and open information society. ALA is on the Web at http://www.ala.org.