ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


2 7 2  /  C&RL News ■ A p r il 2003

W a s h i n g t o n  H o t l i n e Lynne E. Bradley

Key library issues are “popping” u p  in Congress, 
not unlike the spring flowers coming through the 
last vestiges of this w in ter’s snow . T he “n e w ” 
108th Congress seems to have settled in and many 
bills are being introduced and some acted upon.

LSTA
The House of Representatives passed H.R. 13, the 
Museum and Library Services Act o f2003, on March 
6 in a 416 to 2 vote. H.R. 13 contains the primary 
federal library program, LSTA, as well as federal 
funding for museums. This is a major, but certainly 
n o t th e final, hurdle for the reauthorization of 
LSTA. Thanks to all of the ACRL supporters w ho 
made calls to seek cosponsors for the H ouse and 
Senate bills.

Major efforts are still needed in the Senate to 
get more cosponsors for S. 238, which now  has 24 
sponsors. Check h ttp ://THOMAS.loc.gov under 
the bill num b er to retrieve the most current list. 
Please contact your senators to ask them  to sign 
on to S. 238. Senators interested in cosponsoring 
the legislation should contact Senator Jack Reed’s 
staff person, Elyse Wasch, at (202) 224-4642.

E-surveillance and the USA PATRIOT Act
March 6 was also the date that Rep. Bernie Sand­
ers (I-Vermont) introduced H.R. 1157, the Free­
dom  to  Read Protection Act o f 2003. T here are 
already 24 representatives o f th e bill but more, 
especially Republicans, are needed. Academic li­
brary supporters are also urged to ask their respec­
tive representatives to cosponsor the Sanders’ bill. 
Other activities are starting on these issues in the 
Senate, not surprisingly under the leadership of 
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont).

Vemiont librarians were instrumental in press­
ing both local and federal action on surveillance 
an d  library patron confidentiality issues. Trina 
Magi, past president of the Vermont Library As­
sociation and a librarian at the University o f Ver­
m ont, w as an activist in getting 13 tow ns in Ver­
m ont to pass civil liberties resolutions about the 
USA PATRIOT Act. At the Sanders press confer­
ence she said “These provisions. . .  already existed 
p rio r to  th e  [PATRIOT] Act . . .  an d  required 

Lynne E. Bradley is Office o f Government Relations director 
o f ALA's W ashington Office, e-mail: leb@alawash.orq

probable cause and judicial oversight. Now the 
USA PATRIOT Act expands these pow ers u n ­
necessarily, an d  threatens the civil liberties of 
p eo p le w h o  have com m itted n o  crim es.”

H.R. 1157 w ould return the legal standards 
for the FBI to obtain court authorization to seek 
library patrons’ and bookstore customers’ records 
to the legal standards prior to passage o f the USA 
PATRIOT Act in O ctober 2001. T hese types of 
investigations are typically conducted under the 
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), 
which was one of 15 major U.S. laws amended by 
the USA PATRIOT Act. H.R. 1157 also calls for 
public reporting to determine how  provisions of 
the USA PATRIOT Act are being im plem ented in 
order to better assess civil liberties implications. 
For m ore information go to Sanders’ Web site at 
http://bem ie.house.gov/.

UCITA
T he future o f U niform C om puter Inform ation 
T ransactions Act (UCITA) looks doubtful after 
the American Bar Association (ABA) failed to ap­
prove a resolution that w ould approve UCITA’s 
readiness for consideration in state legislatures. 
UCITA has g en erated  en o rm o u s controversy 
within ABA in the past few  m onths in anticipa­
tion o f a v ote o n  UCITA at the ABA’s Midyear 
Meeting in Seattle, February 7-11. Six ABA sec­
tions voted to  reject the resolution supporting 
UCITA. In the w ake of this opposition, the draft­
ers o f UCITA w ithdrew  the resolution from con­
sideration. It is expected that UCITA’s failure in 
ABA will be a deten'ent to further UCITA intro­
duction in state legislatures. Miriam Nisbet, ALA 
legislative counsel and president o f Americans for 
Fair Electronic Commerce Transactions (AFFECT), 
the national coalition opposing UCITA, is ALA’s 
representative to the ABA meeting.

ACRL played an im portant role in the d e ­
velopm ent o f a library com m unity letter to the 
ABA regarding UCITA. In conjunction w ith the 
ALA W ashington Office and other library asso­
ciations, an o p en  letter was sent to the ABA 
H ouse o f Delegates explaining the library prob­
lems w ith UCITA a n d  asking th em  not to pass 
the resolution. More to  report in next m o n th ’s 
C&RL News. C heck th e ALA W ashington Of­
fice Web site for updates. ■

http://IHOMAS.loc.gov
http://bemie.house.gov/
mailto:leb@alawash.orq