james m nordlund
2005-12-21 20:33:13 UTC
PATRIOT Act stalls! Call and write your Senators
Friends,
Last Friday, a few days after the passage of the 400th civil liberties
resolution, a bipartisan group of senators prevented a bill to reauthorize
expiring PATRIOT Act provisions from coming to a vote because it didn't do
enough to protect our civil liberties. The future of that bill is
uncertain, thanks to your efforts! (See Senator Feingold's 12/14 Senate
floor statement referencing the importance of the 400 resolutions below.)
What happened: The bill's supporters fell eight votes short of the 60
votes they needed for cloture, which would have ended debate and prevented
a filibuster Four Republicans (Larry Craig of Idaho; Chuck Hagel of
Nebraska; Lisa Murkowski of Alaska; and John Sununu of New Hampshire)
joined 43 Democrats to oppose cloture and to support a three-month
extension of the 16 expiring provisions so that points of disagreement can
be worked out. Several Senators expressed shock regarding President Bush's
secret authorization of domestic warrants that allowed the National
Security Agency to bypass judicial oversight by the FISA court (read New
York Times story here). See how your Senators voted.
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=109&session=1&vote=00358
Next steps: The Senate is debating the PATRIOT Act reauthorization bill
today. The White House and Republican leadership of the House and the
Senate have so far prevented a motion for a three-month extension from
coming to a vote. Their proposed alternative has been to let the 16
provisions expire and to blame the Democrats. Now some Senate Republicans
are talking about the possibility of an extension of one to four years
without changes.
What you can do: If one or both of your senators opposed cloture, please
phone them today, thank them, and urge them to remain strong in defense of
civil liberties. If you have time, please also send them letters and notes
of thanks; handwritten notes are best. Contact information is at
www.senate.gov.
Regardless of how your Senators voted on Friday, urge them to support the
three-month extension if it comes to a vote. The extension and/or the
"compromise" bill passed by the House may come to a vote later today or
tomorrow.
Going forward: Friends, the national, nonpartisan grassroots debate has
finally begun turning the tide in Congress, and we can't let up. We ask
for your financial support to expand the grassroots movement so that we
can reclaim the protections guaranteed under the Bill of Rights. To donate
now, please go to http://www.bordc.org/donate.php.
We wish you happy, relaxing holidays and we look forward to working with
you in the coming year to rescue our civil liberties.
Thank you,
Bill of Rights Defense Committee
Web: www.bordc.org
Email: info-***@public.gmane.org
Phone: 413-582-0110
Fax: 413-582-0116
P.S. Make a tax-deductible contribution to BORDC on behalf of someone on
your holiday gift list, and we'll send them a card acknowledging your
gift. To donate funds or stock online, go to
http://www.bordc.org/donate.php, or mail a check or money order to: 241
King Street, Suite 216, Northampton, MA, 01060.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Floor statement of Senator Russ Feingold last Wednesday, 12/14, as he
raised a copy of the 470-page book of resolutions (PDF, 2.6 MB) that the
BORDC prepared for last summer's PATRIOT Days of Action:
"Credit ... has to go to the American people who stood up despite the
dismissive and derisive comments of Government officials and said with
loud voices: The PATRIOT Act needs to be changed. And these voices came
from the left and the right, from big cities and small towns all across
the country. So far, over 400 state and local governmental bodies have
passed resolutions calling for revisions to the PATRIOT Act. I plan to
read some of those revisions on the floor of the Senate in this debate,
and there are a lot of them."
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com
Friends,
Last Friday, a few days after the passage of the 400th civil liberties
resolution, a bipartisan group of senators prevented a bill to reauthorize
expiring PATRIOT Act provisions from coming to a vote because it didn't do
enough to protect our civil liberties. The future of that bill is
uncertain, thanks to your efforts! (See Senator Feingold's 12/14 Senate
floor statement referencing the importance of the 400 resolutions below.)
What happened: The bill's supporters fell eight votes short of the 60
votes they needed for cloture, which would have ended debate and prevented
a filibuster Four Republicans (Larry Craig of Idaho; Chuck Hagel of
Nebraska; Lisa Murkowski of Alaska; and John Sununu of New Hampshire)
joined 43 Democrats to oppose cloture and to support a three-month
extension of the 16 expiring provisions so that points of disagreement can
be worked out. Several Senators expressed shock regarding President Bush's
secret authorization of domestic warrants that allowed the National
Security Agency to bypass judicial oversight by the FISA court (read New
York Times story here). See how your Senators voted.
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=109&session=1&vote=00358
Next steps: The Senate is debating the PATRIOT Act reauthorization bill
today. The White House and Republican leadership of the House and the
Senate have so far prevented a motion for a three-month extension from
coming to a vote. Their proposed alternative has been to let the 16
provisions expire and to blame the Democrats. Now some Senate Republicans
are talking about the possibility of an extension of one to four years
without changes.
What you can do: If one or both of your senators opposed cloture, please
phone them today, thank them, and urge them to remain strong in defense of
civil liberties. If you have time, please also send them letters and notes
of thanks; handwritten notes are best. Contact information is at
www.senate.gov.
Regardless of how your Senators voted on Friday, urge them to support the
three-month extension if it comes to a vote. The extension and/or the
"compromise" bill passed by the House may come to a vote later today or
tomorrow.
Going forward: Friends, the national, nonpartisan grassroots debate has
finally begun turning the tide in Congress, and we can't let up. We ask
for your financial support to expand the grassroots movement so that we
can reclaim the protections guaranteed under the Bill of Rights. To donate
now, please go to http://www.bordc.org/donate.php.
We wish you happy, relaxing holidays and we look forward to working with
you in the coming year to rescue our civil liberties.
Thank you,
Bill of Rights Defense Committee
Web: www.bordc.org
Email: info-***@public.gmane.org
Phone: 413-582-0110
Fax: 413-582-0116
P.S. Make a tax-deductible contribution to BORDC on behalf of someone on
your holiday gift list, and we'll send them a card acknowledging your
gift. To donate funds or stock online, go to
http://www.bordc.org/donate.php, or mail a check or money order to: 241
King Street, Suite 216, Northampton, MA, 01060.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Floor statement of Senator Russ Feingold last Wednesday, 12/14, as he
raised a copy of the 470-page book of resolutions (PDF, 2.6 MB) that the
BORDC prepared for last summer's PATRIOT Days of Action:
"Credit ... has to go to the American people who stood up despite the
dismissive and derisive comments of Government officials and said with
loud voices: The PATRIOT Act needs to be changed. And these voices came
from the left and the right, from big cities and small towns all across
the country. So far, over 400 state and local governmental bodies have
passed resolutions calling for revisions to the PATRIOT Act. I plan to
read some of those revisions on the floor of the Senate in this debate,
and there are a lot of them."
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com