Bill of Rights Defense Campaign

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Working with communities to uphold the Bill of Rights
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Action Alert

URGENT PATRIOT Act Update: Calls needed now!
PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY

December 8, 2005

Friends,

A tentative "deal" has been reached on the Patriot Act reauthorization. The compromise (Conference Report on H.R. 3199, the “USA PATRIOT and Terrorism Prevention Reauthorization Act of 2005”) does not contain even the modest reforms in Senate bill S. 1389. It differs from the pre-Thanksgiving version only in that its sunsets on sections 206, 215, and "lone wolf" have been reduced from 7 years to 4 years. The compromise is unacceptable.

Votes next week in the House and Senate are likely, assuming a majority of House and Senate negotiators sign the conference report. We will send updates when we receive them, and we will update our main web page (www.bordc.org) regularly.

Our best chance to defeat the conference report is in the Senate, where Senate Minority Whip Richard Durbin (D-IL), and Sens. Larry Craig (R-ID), Russell Feingold (D-WI), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Ken Salazar (D-CO), and John Sununu (R-NH) have threatened a filibuster. In addition, Democratic Conferees may introduce continuing resolution(s), which would extend by three months the expiring PATRIOT Act provisions AND the debate on reforms.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Please call or fax your Senators (http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/) today and urge them to vote as follows, depending on motions introduced: (1) NO on a motion for cloture (ending debate for an immediate vote); (2) NO on the conference report; and (3) YES on a motion for a continuing resolution.

Please contact your Representative with the same requests.

You may also send your message via email by clicking here, but calls and faxes are preferred.

TALKING POINTS:

Remind them of the resolutions passed in their state or district. (See list at: http://www.bordc.org/list.php?sortAlpha=1.) State your requests (See "What You Can Do" above.) Feel free to expand with one or more reasons for your opposition to the conference report, such as:

  • It fails to ensure a connection between records sought and a suspected terrorist. The bill maintains the current, inadequate “relevancy standard” for records sought under section 215, which requires only that the government claim that the information it seeks is relevant to an investigation, without having to connect the target of the investigation to terrorism.
  • It expands National Security Letter (NSL) powers. Any business that does not comply with an NSL could face criminal penalties. Furthermore, the report does not provide a meaningful mechanism for challenging NSLs in court, and does not ensure that the information gathered by these letters is destroyed if it is unrelated to the investigation for which it was sought.
  • It creates only illusory rights to challenge orders for records and gag orders. Businesses receiving requests for records would be allowed to contact an attorney, but would have only limited rights to challenge orders for records in court. Likewise, a recipient would technically have the right to challenge a gag order, but the court would treat the government’s assertion of national security, diplomatic relations, or an ongoing criminal investigation, as conclusive.


For expanded talking points, go to http://www.bordc.org/newsletter/expandedpoints2.php.

Thanks for all you do.

Bill of Rights Defense Committee
Email: info@bordc.org
Phone: 413-582-0110
Fax: 413-582-0116