Maria's Monday Memo
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Issues & Legislation
Civil LibertiesSenator Maria Cantwell believes the federal government has a responsibility to respect our rights and honor our privacy. It also has a responsibility to protect our nation from those who may bring terror into our homes. These principles are not mutually exclusive: we can and must achieve both.
Respecting Privacy in the Patriot Act Maria believes the federal government has a responsibility to respect our rights and honor our privacy. That’s why she supports legislation to roll back provisions of the PATRIOT Act that allow the federal government to confiscate the papers, electronic records and equipment of libraries and booksellers, as part of open-ended government investigations of American citizens. She believes that government investigators must be required to show a connection between the records they are seeking and a suspected terrorist or spy. Maria also supports the Library, Bookseller, and Personal Records Privacy Act, which would amend the Patriot Act to protect personal privacy involving library, bookseller and other records, while allowing law enforcement to protect national security. Maria supported legislation to renew provisions in the historic Voting Rights Act, originally passed in 1965. She believes that we have a responsibility to guard against inequality and injustice at the polls and that the act is critical to ensure that equal rights are upheld throughout our country’s voting process. National Security Administration (NSA) Wire Tapping Maria believes it is wrong and illegal to wire tap without a warrant. We need to make sure our intelligence programs and officials are getting the job done of protecting the U.S. and maintaining our national security. Maria believes that Congressional checks and balances are needed to make sure that the oversight of our intelligence programs is effective. We must protect both national security and civil liberties. Choice Civil Rights Maria supports the End Racial Profiling Act which would ban racial profiling once and for all and require Federal, State, and local law enforcement to take steps to end and prevent racial profiling. Maria is proud that Washington state has already passed legislation that requires state police to record and make public the racial and ethnic patterns of their traffic stops, and encourages local law enforcement to do the same. Maria supported legislation to award a congressional gold medal to Dr. Dorothy Heights, a prominent social and civil rights activist. She also was a cosponsor of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Commemorative Coin Act of 2004, to mint $1 silver coins in his honor. In addition, Maria is a cosponsor of a Senate-passed, bipartisan resolution apologizing to the victims of lynching and the descendants of those victims for the failure of the Senate to enact anti-lynching legislation in the past. Maria supported a bill awarding a Congressional Gold Medal to Elizabeth Wanamaker Peratrovich and Roy Peratrovich, in recognition of their outstanding and enduring contributions to the civil rights and dignity of the Native peoples of Alaska and the Nation. Maria supported the Civil Rights Tax Relief Act of 2003, which made tax-exempt payments received from discrimination claims.
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