Departments of Commerce, Justice, and State, the Judiciary, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2005
DEPARTMENTS OF COMMERCE, JUSTICE, AND STATE, THE JUDICIARY, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2005 -- (House of Representatives - July 07, 2004)
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Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Chairman, I want to congratulate the gentleman from New York (Mr. Serrano) and the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wolf) for their excellent efforts on this important legislation.
Mr. Chairman, I want to say a few words about a limitation amendment that I will be offering at the end of this bill. That amendment is modeled after H.R. 1157, the Freedom to Read Protection Act, which I have offered and which has 145 bipartisan cosponsors. This legislation is supported by a wide range of groups across the ideological spectrum, from those who are very conservative to those who are very progressive.
The amendment I will be offering later is cosponsored by the gentleman from Idaho (Mr. Otter), the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers), the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Paul) and the gentleman from New York (Mr. Nadler). This amendment addresses section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act, and it is a section which has engendered a great deal of controversy.
Mr. Chairman, there is no disagreement in this body or in the United States of America that our country has got to do everything that it can to prevent another 9/11, to prevent acts of terrorism against the American people. But I think there is also widespread belief in this body and throughout this country that we can and must fight terrorism without undermining the basic constitutional rights that have made this a free country.
All over this country, in hundreds of cities which have passed resolutions, in four States which have passed resolutions, among hundreds of different organizations, there is a concern that within the USA PATRIOT Act in section 215 it gives the right of the government, with virtually no probable cause, to go into our libraries, to go into our bookstores and to ascertain the reading habits of the American people. That is not, I believe, what this country is about or what this body believes in.
So we are going to be offering an amendment that would disallow the government from gaining the reading records of people who buy books at bookstores or take books out of the library or use Internet service in the library.
I am delighted we have so much support for this legislation.
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