Senate Approves Reader Privacy Safeguards for USA PATRIOT Act

On the final day before its summer recess, the Senate Friday unanimously approved a bill that adds to the USA PATRIOT Act many of the safeguards for reader privacy that have been sought by the book and library community since the passage of the law in 2001, including tougher requirements for searching bookstore and library records under Section 215.  The vote was a surprise, coming just one week after the Senate Judiciary Committee passed the bill, S. 1389.

Critics of the PATRIOT Act welcomed the passage of S. 1389, which they like much better than a companion bill approved by the House on July 21. The House legislation, which like the Senate bill re-authorizes expiring sections of the PATRIOT Act, allows the FBI to search the bookstore and library records of anyone, including people who are not suspected of a crime, whenever they are "relevant" to a counter-terrorism or counter-espionage investigation. The Senate bill limits searches to the records of people who are suspected terrorists or spies and people who are in contact with them, reducing the danger that that the FBI will engage in fishing expeditions in bookstore and library records.

S. 1389 provides several other important safeguards: it gives the recipient of a Section 215 order the right to consult an attorney and to challenge the order in the secret court established by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA); it requires an FBI agent to obtain written approval from the FBI director or deputy director before applying to the FISA court for a search order for bookstore and library records, and the Justice Department must publicly reveal each year the number of Section 215 orders issued to bookstores and libraries. S. 1389 also provides that Section 215 will expire at the end of 2009.

The House and Senate bills will now go to a conference committee for reconciliation. The Senate conferees will be Arlen Specter (R-PA), Pat Roberts (R-KS), Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Michael DeWine (R-OH), Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Edward Kennedy (D-MA), Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and Carl Levin (D-MI). The House conferees have not be chosen.