Reply #32: HOUSE Judiciary Hearing: Nadler Demands National Security Letters/Patriot Act Abuses Fix [View All]

Nadler Demands National Security Letters/Patriot Act Abuses Fix
http://www.house.gov/list/press/ny08_nadler/NSLPatActFix032007.html


WASHINGTON, D.C. – During a Judiciary Committee hearing on the FBI's abuse of National Security Letters today, Congressman Jerrold Nadler called on Congress to amend the law to ensure that the recently revealed abuses documented by the DOJ Inspector General’s Report are not allowed to continue.

"It is not enough to mandate that the FBI fix internal management problems and record keeping, because the statute itself authorizes the unchecked collection of information on innocent Americans. Congress must act now to fix the statute authorizing the abuses revealed in the IG report and to hold those responsible for these violations accountable," said Congressman Nadler.

For years, Congressman Nadler has led the opposition to the pernicious elements of the Patriot Act and specifically has raised concerns regarding National Security Letters. In the last Congress, he introduced the Stop Self-Authorized Secret Searches Act, H.R. 2715, to prevent abuse of National Security Letters. This year, as Chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties, he plans to introduce legislation designed to prevent the very abuses that were raised today during the hearing. As a Co-Chair of the bipartisan Patriot Act Reform Caucus, he will continue to work with his colleagues in a bipartisan fashion to amend Section 505 of the Patriot Act which concerns National Security Letters.

His full statement follows:

"I would like to thank Chairman Conyers for holding this important hearing on the FBI abuses of National Security Letters. ......

"We are here today in response to the DOJ’s Inspector General Report that found wide-spread abuses of the FBI’s authority to issue National Security Letters.