[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 16]
[Senate]
[Pages 21436-21437]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




       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

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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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