House Votes to Restrict Patriot Act

Bill blocking federal seizure of library records passes with bipartisan support

By Laura B. Weiss -- School Library Journal, 7/1/2005

The House voted June 15 to approve a measure to strip law enforcement officers of the ability to search library and bookstore records under the USA Patriot Act.

Sponsored by Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), the measure would bar the Department of Justice from using federal funds to search library and bookstore records.

But former Rep. Bob Barr, a Republican who now heads the anti-Patriot Act organization Patriots to Restore Checks and Balances, says the Sanders vote is only the opening salvo, designed to “send a signal to the administration that conservatives won’t allow the Patriot Act to limit the Bill of Rights.”

Enacted in the wake of 9/11, the Patriot Act grants broad powers to FBI and other law enforcement officials to seize library and bookstore records. Under Section 215 of the act, agents can go before a secret court—instead of obtaining a traditional search warrant—to get a subpoena to search the records. Several of the bill’s provisions, including Section 215, will expire at the end of the year unless reauthorized by Congress.

President Bush, in a June 9 speech, called on Congress to reauthorize the Patriot Act, saying that the law is “bringing terrorists to justice.”

With 199 Democrats, 38 Republicans, and one Independent voting for the Sanders measure, House members cited fears about the act’s impact on libraries as one of the reasons they voted for the measure. “This amendment ensures that Big Brother will not be reading over our shoulders,” Sanders says.

Congressman Bob Ney (R-OH), who voted for the Sanders measure, says administration officials had asked him to hold off voting to restrict Section 215 until a later date. But Ney says he “didn’t want to take a chance on waiting” for another legislative opportunity to restrict the Patriot Act’s powers.

Explaining his vote in support of the Sanders measure, Ney says, “I just never felt it was fair to put the libraries under this type of scrutiny. It’s a real chill to the libraries.” Ney is one of the three Republicans who voted against the original Patriot Act in October 2001.

In order to become law, the Sanders bill must pass the Senate and be signed by the President who has said he will veto it.

Meanwhile, in other Patriot Act legislation, the Senate Intelligence Committee in closed-door deliberations voted June 8 to greatly expand the power of federal agents to search library documents.