In a March 30 press release, the Campaign for Reader Privacy—a joint initiative of the American Booksellers Association, American Library Association, Association of American Publishers, and PEN American Center—condemned Bush’s March 9 Patriot Act signing statement, an official document in which a president spells out his understanding of a bill he is signing into law, as undercutting congressional oversight.
Bush wrote that the executive branch would treat the provisions “in a manner consistent with” his authority to “withhold information the disclosure of which could impair foreign relations, national security, the deliberative processes of the Executive, or the performance of the Executive’s constitutional duties.”
“It is simply outrageous that the president thinks he can choose the sections of the law he wants to enforce and ignore the rest,” said ABA Chief Operating Officer Oren Teicher. ALA President Michael Gorman added, “It is up to the Congress to ensure that every aspect of the Patriot law as written, including reporting requirements, be enforced.”
One of the oversight provisions in the revised law requires the Department of Justice to report in April of every year the number of bookstore and library searches it has conducted under Section 215, which gives the FBI the authority to search records it believes are relevant to a terrorist investigation.
Posted March 31, 2006.