[Libs-Or] Fwd: [alacro-l] Take Action: Contact Your Senators and Representatives about USA Freedom Act

[Suzanne Sager]

FYI,

Suzanne L. Sager

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Don Wood <dwood at ala.org>
Date: Mon, May 18, 2015 at 1:24 PM
Subject: [alacro-l] Take Action: Contact Your Senators and Representatives
about USA Freedom Act
To: "alacro-l at lists.ala.org" <alacro-l at lists.ala.org>


 Last week, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed (338 – 88)
the USA FREEDOM Act of 2015 (H.R. 2048): the first real reform of the USA
PATRIOT Act in well over a decade. The bill will finally end the "bulk
collection" of Americans’ library, phone and many other personal records
under Section 215 (a.k.a. the "library provision") of the PATRIOT Act and
also will for the first time enable meaningful legal challenge of the FBI’s
National Security Letters and the gag orders that accompany them.

But . . . to become law, H.R. 2048 also has to clear the Senate, where
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky wants to just extend the
current privacy-invasive law for five years without any changes at all. If
he can't do that, Senator McConnell and other "surveillance hawks" want to
relieve public pressure on the Senate by passing a short-term extension of
current law without reforms so that they can amend the "USA FREEDOM Act
later to make it toothless (like the House did last year) or to add awful
new "poison pill" provisions that would cause groups like ALA and many
major corporations to withdraw support of an otherwise positive bill.

Congress is scheduled to leave town *this Thursday* for a Memorial Day
recess that will extend beyond the June 1 expiration of Section 215 of the
PATRIOT Act, so this week will likely decide the fate of the broadest NSA
reform in 14 years.

Don't let the USA FREEDOM Act "die" in the senate again this year! Contact
the offices of both your Senators -- and your Representative in the House
-- TODAY. Please tell them
<http://cqrcengage.com/ala/app/write-a-letter?0&engagementId=101158>:

   - Senators: PASS H.R. 2048 (or its twin, S. 1123) NOW without any
   weakening amendments *AND *immediately *publicly *OPPOSE *any *extension
   of the PATRIOT Act beyond June 1, *no matter how short.*
   - epresentative: SPEAK OUT PUBLICLY *today *against extension of the
   PATRIOT ACT *for any period of time* without real reform. Senators need
   to hear "loud and clear" that even a short-term extension of the PATRIOT
   Act will be "DOA" in the House, and thus pointless to pass, or they'll just
   "kick the can" down the road as Sen. McConnell has twice proposed and
   continues to push.

With Section 215's expiration date and a Congressional recess looming, NOW
is the critical time to push for passage of the USA FREEDOM Act  For more
information, see *District Dispatch*
<http://www.districtdispatch.org/2015/05/ending-bulk-collection-of-library-records-on-the-line-in-looming-senate-vote/>,
and please, call both of your *Senators and Representative *today.

*We submit your correspondence through officials' contact forms and
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Don Wood
Program Officer
Chapter Relations Office
<http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/cro/index.cfm>
American Library Association
50 East Huron Street
Chicago, IL 60611
dwood at ala.org
1-800-545-2433, ext. 2429; 312-280-2429
312-280-4392 (fax)
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Follow CRO on Twitter <http://twitter.com/ALA_CRO>

Take Action for America’s Libraries <http://cqrcengage.com/ala/home>



“Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only
thing.”—Albert Schweitzer





-- 
Suzanne L. Sager
Oregon ALA Representative
Portland State University Library
PO Box 1151
Portland, OR  97207-1151

Phone: 503-725-8169
Fax: 503-725-5799

email: sagers at pdx.edu
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