Access the Statement (2 pages; PDF)

On October 20, 2009, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) and Representatives Jerrold R. Nadler (D-NY) and Bobby Scott (D-VA) introduced the USA PATRIOT Amendments Act of 2009 (H.R.3845). The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and the American Library Association (ALA) believe that this bill contains
necessary and important reforms to the powers created by the USA PATRIOT Act.

Several provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act are set to expire on December 31, 2009 unless Congress acts to reauthorize them. This “sunsetting” provides lawmakers with an
opportunity to revisit the USA PATRIOT Act and address the numerous shortcomings and abuses that have come to light in the years since its passage. The Senate Judiciary
Committee took up these issues recently with disappointing results. Senator Feingold’s excellent proposals for comprehensive reform, which ARL and ALA endorsed, were
passed over in favor of a minimal bill that would offer library patrons some limited protections for their offline activities, but does little else to address deep concerns with
the original USA PATRIOT Act. The full Senate has yet to vote on a bill.

Access the Complete Statement (2 pages; PDF)

Source: ARL/ALA

See Also: ALA: House takes lead with strong surveillance reform bills
You will find links to track the legislation via GovTrack.us

See Also: Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT)
Disappointed in Patriot Act Revisions
Two librarians from Vermont are featured in this report.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 23rd, 2009 and is filed under Access to Information, Libraries and Librarianship, Privacy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.