Thanks to your faxes and calls, we stopped the Specter bill (for now, at least)!

We did it! The Specter bill did not make it out of the Senate Judiciary Committee before the Senate adjourned last week for its August recess. Thanks to more than 2,600 faxes sent through the BORDC website (and faxes and calls made individually and through our allies), S 2453 is receiving some harsh criticism and much deserved scrutiny.

Specter’s bill seeks to legalize the President’s domestic wiretapping program and give license for any other spy programs future presidents invent, free of meaningful oversight by Congress or the courts. Let’s thank Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) for their excellent speeches last Thursday opposing S 2453, and also thank Senators Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Charles Schumer (D-NY), who were prepared to speak but didn’t get a chance. You can read Senator Feinstein’s statement here. Please see the list of phone numbers below, and if one of your Senators is among them, call your Senator to thank and encourage him or her to continue to adamantly guard our Fourth Amendment rights!

We have kept Specter’s bill at bay – but throughout August, we must continue working to get it off the table entirely!

Senator Specter says he has the votes to pass S 2453 out of his committee, and he may have enough votes to pass it in the Senate. At present, all Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee approve of the measure. Please visit and telephone your Congressional representatives throughout the August recess (through September 4), while they’re home and holding town hall meetings.

For tools and guidelines for meeting with your representatives, take a look at the BORDC “Reclaiming the Message” workshop called Building Relationships With Members of Congress: http://www.bordc.org/resources/workshop4.php. You’ll find tips from three seasoned veterans of Congressional meetings and step-by-step instructions on how to make effective calls and visits to build lasting relationships with your elected representatives. You can also listen to streaming audio from the workshop.
Talking points for your meeting with your Senator about S 2453 can be found here: http://bordc.org/threats/spy-points.php

Up next – Representative Heather Wilson’s bill, pending in the House Judiciary Committee.

Heather Wilson (R-NM) has introduced a bill H 5825, a bill which purports to “update” the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), but which has all the markings of a wish list from the White House. Please meet with your House member or call and tell her or him why you’re convinced it’s crucial that Congress instead enforce the current law. Here are some talking points for your calls and meetings on H 5825:

H 5825 allows warrantless surveillance of all international calls and emails of Americans and businesses in the U.S. without any evidence they’re involved with al-Qaeda or other terrorist organizations.
It pre-approves warrantless searches whenever U.S. territory is attacked, putting us in a perpetual state of having our rights violated anytime a terrorist group decides to attack.
The NSA and the White House insist that even though FISA allows them to wiretap for 72 hours before getting a warrant, 72 hours is too confining. They want to wiretap at will, which runs roughshod over the Fourth Amendment protections of probable cause and judicial oversight.
FISA has been “modernized” 12 times in the past 30 years – most recently when the PATRIOT Act reauthorization passed in March. These bills being put forward to “update” and “modernize” FISA are actually designed to expand executive power and that’s threatening the privacy of Americans who deserve due process before the government can tap our calls.

Thank you for all you do! And please let our organizers, Linda Stone and Hope Marston, know if BORDC can assist with your efforts to set up meetings with your legislators this month!

Bill of Rights Defense Committee
http://www.bordc.org
info@bordc.org
413 582-0110
RESOURCES

* For more information about the NSA spying threat: http://bordc.org/threats/spying.php
* Read Senator Feinstein's statement, here: http://www.bordc.org/threats/feinstein2453.php

Judiciary Committee Senators – “Thank you for stopping Specter’s Legalizing Warrantless Wiretapping bill!”

Patrick J. Leahy, VT
Burlington: 1-802-683-2525 or 1-800-682-3192 (for Vermonters)
Montpelier: 1-802-229-0565

Dianne Feinstein, CA
San Diego: 619-231-9712
Fresno: 559-485-7430
San Francisco: 415-393-0707
Los Angeles: 310-914-7300

Russell D. Feingold, WI
LaCrosse: 608-782-5585
Middleton: 608-828-1200
Green Bay: 920-465-7508
Milwaukee: 414-276-7282
Wausau: 715-848-5660

Charles E. Schumer, NY
Albany: 518-431-4070
Binghamton: 607-772-6792
Buffalo: 716-846-4111
Hudson Valley: 914-285-9741
Long Island: 631-753-0978
NYC: 212-486-4430
TTYD Number: 212-486-7803
Rochester: 585-263-5866
Syracuse: 315-423-5471

Richard J. Durbin, IL
Chicago: 312-353-4952
Marion: 618-998-8812
Springfield: 217-492-4062

Edward M. Kennedy, MA
Boston: 617-565-3170 or 877-472-9014

Joseph R. Biden, Jr., DE
Milford: 302-424-8090
Wilmington: 302-573-6345

Herbert Kohl, WI
Appleton: 920-738-1640
Eau Claire: 715-832-8424
LaCrosse: 608-796-0045
Madison: 608-264-5338
Milwaukee: 800-247-5645