Sen. Patrick Leahy is finding himself at odds with privacy-protecting librarians in the state — a group that usually has praise for Vermont's senior U.S. Senator and has often worked with him in the past.
Last week Leahy's Senate Judiciary Committee voted to approve an extension of pieces of the USA Patriot Act, major parts of which have long been criticized by those librarians and others interested in protecting civil liberties, including in some cases by Leahy himself.
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"I am feeling very disappointed," said University of Vermont Research Librarian Trina Magi, one of the most active librarians in Vermont on privacy issues. "I don't think the bill voted out of the Judiciary Committee comes close to meeting the hopes we had."
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"We are very confident in Sen. Leahy, we know he shares our concerns. I am confident he was trying to get the best legislation he could," said John Payne, director of library and information services at St. Michael's College and president of the Vermont Library Association. But, he added, the bill as it came out of the Senate Judiciary Committee "was very watered down."
The chairwoman of the library association's committee dealing with intellectual freedom, Gail Weymouth, a Killington librarian, said that the Judiciary Committee bill doesn't offer very many additional protections for those concerned that the Patriot Act has resulted in a loss of privacy and individual rights – particularly given the reports showing how the provisions have been used.
"We appreciate what Sen. Leahy has tried to do, but it is very disturbing that the Judiciary Committee could just overlook what has been said," said Weymouth.
"It is being so abused that it is very disturbing," she said.
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