1-24-06, 8:43 am

Tens of thousands to tell Congress, “Repair the PATRIOT Act!”

Northampton, MA – Tens of thousands of Americans will phone their members of Congress on Wednesday, January 25, to urge them to repair the USA PATRIOT Act.  The Bill of Rights Defense Committee (BORDC) organized the National Call-In Day in response to a draft PATRIOT Act reauthorization bill that its network of grassroots allies nationwide strongly oppose.  The American Library Association (ALA) and dozens of other national organizations are supporting the national call-in day.  A Senate filibuster last month over concerns that the reauthorization bill failed to protect civil liberties temporarily prevented it from becoming law.  The House and Senate agreed to extend until February 3rd the 16 PATRIOT Act provisions that would have expired on December 31, 2005.

“Four years ago, Congress’s passage of the PATRIOT Act expanded the executive branch's surveillance powers and limited oversight of those powers by the courts and Congress,” according to Nancy Talanian, director of the BORDC.  “People began to fear that Big Brother was violating their privacy and First Amendment rights.  The President’s authorization of warrantless wiretaps is one of many revelations that have validated those fears.  Therefore, it is imperative that the American people serve as the ultimate check on their government by calling on their members of Congress for redress.”

Emily Sheketoff, executive director of the ALA's Washington Office agreed. 'Librarians have led the fight to protect the public's privacy,' she said.  'We need them once again to call their elected federal representatives to stress the importance of the Senate version of the PATRIOT Reauthorization Act.'  The ALA and the state library associations of all fifty states have passed resolutions calling for more congressional oversight on the PATRIOT Act and related measures that have a chilling effect on library users' free inquiry.

The BORDC has encouraged and supported community education and debate about the PATRIOT Act and other post-9/11 anti-terrorism laws and policies in living rooms, churches, union halls, and town halls nationwide.  Concerns over new threats to civil liberties discussed in those nonpartisan debates have led to the passage of more than 400 resolutions upholding the constitutional rights of their jurisdictions’ 62 million residents, including seven statewide resolutions. The BORDC, ALA, League of Women Voters, American Civil Liberties Union, and many other groups are urging their members and contacts to make phone calls to their congressional representatives on Wednesday, January 25, to demand safeguards to prevent the FBI from “fishing” through private purchase, medical, and library records without a statement of fact linking persons whose records are sought to a terrorism investigation, and to permit businesses and libraries to pose a meaningful challenge to a FISA Court order or a National Security Letter demanding customer records, among many other changes.

Other organizations supporting the call-in campaign include Alliance for Justice, American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Amnesty International USA, Campaign for Reader Privacy, Center for Democracy and Technology, Code Pink, Council on American-Islamic Relations, First Amendment Foundation, Friends Committee on National Legislation, Global Exchange, League of United Latin American Citizens, Liberty Coalition, MoveOn.org Political Action, National Lawyers Guild, People For the American Way, Rights Working Group, San Francisco Labor Council, Unitarian Universalist Association, and United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America.

The Capitol switchboard number is 202 224-3121 (24 hours). 

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