Patriot Act Renewal Process Extended Until the End of February
Act was supposed to expire at end of 2009; will Christmas Day terrorism attempt affect outcome?
Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 01/12/2010
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- Dueling versions in House and Senate
- ALA disappointed with both
- Will keep pressure on but fears climate may have changed
Despite some library-friendly changes last fall in one version of the USA PATRIOT Act renewal, Congress did not resolve its differences, and in December extended the sunset deadline for the sections of the act that were supposed to expire at the end of the year.
Now Congress must renew or revise those sections, notably Section 215 (which includes the business records provision involving libraries), by the end of February.
According to a pre-Midwinter Meeting circulated by the American Library Association (ALA), the organization, along with allies, "has been pushing to raise the appropriate legal standards for law enforcement to obtain, and for recipients to challenge, orders for library records, attached gag orders and other information. Although this fall’s debate could have targeted only the three sunsetting provisions, the coalitions and ALA also emphasized the need to reform legal standards covering national security letters (NSLs)."
Two bills pending
Dueling bills are pending in the House, H.R. 3845, and Senate, S. 1692. (Here's a comparison chart via the Center for Democracy and Technology.)
"At this time, the House bill, H.R. 3845, is preferred over the Senate version, in part because H.R. 3845 also includes some improvement to the NSL standards," ALA said, expressing disappointment that the federal government supports the “weaker” versions of these bills.
"If they had their way, they would merely reauthorize the three sections 'as is,'" ALA warned, suggeting that concerns over terrorism fueled by the attempted Christmas Day airplane bombing attempt likely will impact Congressional deliberations or even additional amendments.
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Patriot Act Renewal Process Extended Until the End of February
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