Category: Legislation

Federal: The Email Privacy Act (H.R. 699) was discussed in a House Judiciary Committee last week. The act would reform the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), which unbelievably allows for text and files stored in the cloud to be subpoenaed by law enforcement authorities after they’re more than six months old without a judicial warrant…

Federal: While President Obama has yet to appoint a new Librarian of Congress, he did recently sign the Librarian of Congress Succession Modernization Act of 2015 (S. 2162). The act limits the Librarian of Congress term to 10 years, with the possibility for renewal upon reconfirmation by the Senate. Hopefully this change will spur the…

Federal: This week the Senate voted to pass CISA, the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (S. 754), by a vote of 74 to 21. ALA has opposed most forms of CISA since its inception and released a statement by President Sari Feldman after it passed in the Senate on Tuesday: “CISA won’t prevent cyberattacks like the…

Federal: The big news in federal library advocacy is that the nation is on the lookout for a new Librarian of Congress. President Obama is expected to announce his selection soon. Also, the Senate passed legislation that (if confirmed by the House and President) would establish a 10 year term for the position of Librarian…

Federal: Legislation to update the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) is gaining ground in Congress this fall. ECPA is the principal law that controls when the government needs to have a search warrant to obtain the full content of electronic communications. It was enacted in 1986 and has not been updated since. There is now…

Federal: In the fight for online privacy, ALA and the Freedom to Read Foundation (FTRF) contributed to an amicus brief in a current lawsuit over internet privacy and surveillance: Wikimedia Foundation v. National Security Agency. The brief challenges the NSA’s “Upstream” surveillance program, which involves copying Internet traffic, including e-mails, chat, web browsing and other communications. Library…

Federal: In the continuing fight over net neutrality, ALA, ACRL, ARL, & COSLA have requested the right to file an amici curiae brief supporting the respondent in the case of United States Telecom Association (USTA) v. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and United States of America. The purpose of the brief would be to bolster the…

Federal: Due largely in part to numerous citizen advocates, the Senate did not take up S. 754, the privacy-hostile Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA). According to the New America’s Open Technology Institute and the Center for Democracy and Technology, the bill would have created “incentives for private companies and the government to widely share huge amounts of Americans’ personally…

The Governor’s proposed budget, which is intended to overcome a projected $6 billion budget deficit for FY 2016 (on top of a $1.6 billion deficit for the current fiscal year), includes $1.5 billion in cuts to Medicaid, making the program one of the main targets of the Governor’s cost-cutting efforts. The program currently covers more…

Two weeks ago, House Bill 2689–the Internet Screening in Public Libraries Act–was introduced in the Illinois General Assembly. The Act would require that all public libraries in the state put into place a “technology protection measure”, such as a filter, that would prevent library users from viewing material that could be construed as obscene or…