National Security Letters and Patriot Act Reauthorization

NATIONAL SECURITY LETTERS AND PATRIOT ACT REAUTHORIZATION

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, the USA PATRIOT Act greatly expanded the Government's authority to use national security letters, documents issued by FBI agents without judicial or grand jury approval that allow the Government to obtain sensitive information about innocent American citizens. The recipient of a national security letter is subject to a permanent automatic gag order.

The Justice Department claims that they are not interested in the library records of innocent Americans. However, they acknowledge that they do not know how often FBI agents have obtained library records since enactment of the PATRIOT Act. And just 3 weeks ago, the Justice Department again refused my request to make public the number of national security letters that FBI agents have issued since the PATRIOT Act became law. As a result, the American people have no idea how often the FBI is using this controversial power to obtain their sensitive personal records, including library records.

I commend our Nation's librarians for defending our Constitution and leading the fight to reform the PATRIOT Act. Unfortunately in the past this Justice Department has criticized librarians for exercising their first amendment rights. Now they have gone even further--preventing a librarian from speaking publicly about a legal challenge to the national security letter power.

In our democracy, the government is supposed to be open and accountable to the people and the people have a right to keep their personal lives private, This Justice Department seems to want to reverse this order, keeping their activity secret and prying into the private lives of innocent American citizens.

The President has asked Congress to reauthorize the PATRIOT Act. In order to have a fully informed public debate, the American people should know how often the national security letter authority has been used and they should be able to hear from librarians and others who are concerned about this power.

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