Sanders Votes Against Republican Patriot Act Bill that Undermines Americans' Basic Constitutional Rights

Sanders Votes Against Republican Patriot Act Bill that Undermines Americans' Basic Constitutional Rights
12/14/2005

Washington D.C.-Congressman Bernie Sanders today voted against the conference report reauthorizing the USA Patriot Act brought before the House. Opposed by a wide coalition of conservative and progressive Representatives, the bill does virtually nothing to reform a host of provisions that unnecessarily infringe on Americans' constitutional rights. The Senate is expected to vote on the Patriot Act conference report later this week.

Sanders said, "We must do all we can to fight terrorism in this country but it is critical that we do this without undermining the basic constitutional rights that makes us a free country. Americans across the nation have called on Congress to substantially reform the Patriot Act in order to restore vital protections to our civil liberties. Unfortunately, the Republican leadership has ignored these calls and put forward a Patriot Act reauthorization bill that does virtually nothing to restore key protections to Americans' civil rights.

"In particular, the House bill ignores the will of a majority of House members-both Republican and Democrat-that voted for an amendment to Section 215 that I offered this past summer to protect the reading records of all Americans. This change, along with changes to a number of other provisions, is critical to ensuring the protection of Americans' constitutional rights. The original Senate version of the reauthorization, while far from perfect, offered far greater protections of our civil liberties and I will continue to work with our allies in the Senate to restore these critical checks and balances before the final bill is signed into law."

http://bernie.house.gov/documents/document.asp?issueNum=4709