Feingold Introduces Bills To Protect Civil Liberties Legislation Would Restore Protections Stripped Away Under the PATRIOT Act February 8, 2005 Washington, D.C. -- U.S. Senator Russ Feingold has introduced three bills that would protect the civil liberties of all Americans. Today, Feingold reintroduced The Library, Bookseller and Personal Records Privacy Act, The Reasonable Notice and Search Act, and The Computer Trespass Clarification Act. All of the bills are intended to fix specific portions of the USA PATRIOT Act that Feingold criticized before he voted against the bill in October 2001. The Library, Bookseller and Personal Records Privacy Act will protect the privacy of citizens with no connection to terrorism by more carefully circumscribing the ability of the government to obtain library, bookstore, medical, and financial records and other sensitive materials under the Patriot Act, while still allowing the FBI to follow up on legitimate terrorism leads. The Reasonable Notice and Search Act revises the Patriot Act authority to delay notice of the execution of search warrants - so-called "sneak and peak" provisions - and requires the Attorney General of the United States to submit to Congress every six months a report concerning all of the requests for delayed notice warrants. The Computer Trespass Clarification Act limits the amount of warrantless surveillance of authorized computer users allowed under a provision of the Patriot Act that was designed simply to permit computer owners to seek the assistance of the government in combating unauthorized hackers. "These bills are appropriate fixes to a number of the Patriot Act's most problematic provisions, which members of both parties are working to correct," Feingold said. "The civil liberties we enjoy as Americans define our nation as the freest on Earth, and I will continue to work to protect those freedoms while keeping our country safe from terrorism."

# # #