[Scla-list] FW: [fllan] FW: Quick Update on PATRIOT reform bills

[Gilson, Thomas V]

Hi everyone,

For those of you who are concerned about this issue, here is more
information about the status of the USA PATRIOT Act - Re-authorization.
There is now an alert on our CapWiz site at
http://capwiz.com/ala/sc/home/   In order to get more information along
with relevant talking points just click "Read More".  Senator Lindsey
Graham is on the committee so you will want to direct your e-mails to
him.   You can click on his name from our CapWiz front page which will
take you to his information and a tab that says "contact."  Click on
that and it will take you to a page where the second line says Contact
Sen. Lindsey Graham via Web Form.
<http://capwiz.com/ala/sc/mail/?id=531&lvl=C&chamber=S>   Click on the
web form and select Compose Your Own Letter.  Remember that there are
talking points that you can use from the "Read More" link mentioned
above.  

 

And for those of you who want to keep track of all the developments on
this issue you can get updates from the District Dispatch reports
maintained by the ALA Washington Office at:

http://www.wo.ala.org/districtdispatch/?cat=10

 

thanks,

Tom

 

From: Kristin K. Murphy [mailto:kmurphy at alawash.org] 
Sent: Friday, October 02, 2009 10:00 AM
To: fllan at ala.org
Subject: [fllan] FW: Quick Update on PATRIOT reform bills

 

Dear FLLAN members,


We have done four recent District Dispatch blogs about the status of
bills seeking to reauthorize and/or reform the three sun setting
provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act, including Section 215, the "library
records" provision.   Last week two different bills were introduced in
the Senate with a number of good reform provisions.  As the Senate
Judiciary Committee markup session started this morning, a third bill
was substituted that had been negotiated between Senators Leahy and
Feinstein that weakens many of the reform proposals in S. 1686 and S.
1692.  (This new version of the bill is still S. 1692.)  

 

We hope that all of you are following these issues and contacting your
respective senators about the reforms that ALA is seeking.  Please urge
your network to visit  ALA Legislative Action Center and take action at:
http://capwiz.com/ala/home/

 

There is a list of members of the Senate Judiciary Committee on the
action alert.  If your Senator is a member, please contact his or her
office and urge them to support PATRIOT Act reforms.  If they are NOT on
the committee, please urge them to tell their colleagues on the
committee to support these critical reforms.

 

For the updates go to the District Dispatch reports at:

http://www.wo.ala.org/districtdispatch/?cat=10

 

This is a very fluid situation with another markup session scheduled for
the Senate Judiciary Committee next week, most likely again on Thursday.
We are asking for grassroots library supporters to keep the pressure on.
There remain many challenges on these critical issues to bring reforms
to Section 215 as well as national security letters (NSLs) to protect
library patron records and other civil liberties.  Stay tuned for
further updates in the coming days.  If you have any questions, please
feel free to contact us.  And, comments are always welcomed on the
District Dispatch blog.

 

Additionally, we will be tweeting the action alerts and updates as they
happen.  Please sign up for our updates on Twitter: our username is
ala_ogr.

 

Lynne E. Bradley, Director

Office of Government Relations

American Library Association

1615 New Hampshire Ave., NW

Washington, D.C. 20009-2520

1-800-941-8478

202-628-8410

lbradley at alawash.org

 

 

For a "blow by blow" report on the Senate Judiciary Committee October 1
markup and the S.1692 amendments discussed, see the Electronic Frontier
Foundation report at:

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/10/liveblogging-senate-judiciary-patri
ot-act-mark

 

 

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