December 14, 2005 Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) today announced
his intention to vote against and support efforts to filibuster the conference
report reauthorizing the USA Patriot Act, citing concerns about numerous
provisions that could compromise Americans’ privacy rights that
would be made permanent under the legislation. Specifically, Wyden announced
his intention today to oppose the legislation because it does not include
sunsets for controversial powers and diminishes congressional oversight
over the government’s use of these powers. Specifically, Wyden cited strong concerns over a number of provisions contained in the conference report that would significantly compromise the privacy rights of law-abiding U.S. citizens. These specific provisions include: • A provision that makes permanent the ability of FBI agents to
issue National Security Letters (NSL), or documents issued without the
approval of a judge or grand jury, which allows the government to obtain
sensitive personal information about law-abiding U.S. citizens; While Wyden is an original co-sponsor of the Combat Meth Act that was attached to conference report, he expressed his disappointment that this legislation was attached to the controversial PATRIOT Act. “As a cosponsor of the combat meth legislation, I am disappointed by the politicization of the meth tragedy in this fashion,” said Wyden. “I will continue to fight for the passage of the meth bill but not as a part of this badly flawed legislation.” Wyden has long been an advocate of boosting national security interests while protecting civil liberties. Earlier this fall, Wyden was successful in stripping out of the Intelligence Authorization Bill of 2005 a provision that would have permitted Pentagon intelligence officials to conduct covert interviews of U.S. persons on American soil to assess them as potential intelligence sources without disclosing their government affiliation. In that legislation, Wyden also succeeded in modifying a provision in the legislation that would permit the intelligence community to request individuals’ personal information from other government agencies.
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