New judiciary panel leader promises more oversight, privacy protection

Incoming Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy unveiled his agenda for the Democratic-led Congress on Wednesday, promising a fresh start for the panel that was headed by Pennsylvania Republican Arlen Specter in the 109th Congress.

During his speech at the Georgetown University Law Center, the Vermont Democrat said his agenda is one of "restoration, repair and renewal." He spoke of Congress's duty to restore constitutional values and the rights of ordinary citizens; repair the broken oversight process; and renew government accountability.

The new majority does not have "the luxury of starting with a completely clean slate," Leahy said. "We begin, knowing that we have a duty -- a real duty -- to repair real damage done to our system of government over the past few years."

The six-term senator, who was infuriated by a lack of answers from Attorney General Alberto Gonzales when he testified about anti-terrorism wiretaps this year, said the Bush administration's top lawyer can "expect an invitation" to Senate Judiciary soon.

If more light is not shone on the electronic eavesdropping, Leahy is prepared to use the committee's subpoena power. This White House has "systematically eroded Americans' privacy rights" through its wiretapping and the creation of databanks and dossiers on law-abiding citizens, he said.

Citizens' privacy is "a price that the Bush administration is willing to pay for the cavalier way it is spawning new databanks," he said. The president needs to stop treating privacy as "an expendable commodity."

When it comes to privacy protections, the United States is using "analog rules in a digital world," he said. His committee is "way overdue in catching up on the erosion of privacy" and it will be "one of our highest priorities" next year.

Leahy said "what a lot of us have been thinking," responded Tim Sparapani, a privacy advocate for the American Civil Liberties Union. "Americans' privacy has been collateral damage in the way we've been waging the war on terror. We can't continue to go down that path."

Sparapani also lauded Leahy's belief that Congress cannot tinker with the decades-old Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act or any wiretapping statutes before it gets "a full accounting" of the data-collection programs. "This administration has not even begun to make its case that the laws need to be modified," he said.

In addition to Gonzales' reappearance before Judiciary, Sparapani said telecommunications executives who reportedly cooperated helped the National Security Agency with wiretaps should be "questioned under oath and have the opportunity to explain their role."

Virginia Sloan, president of the Constitution Project, said Leahy's game plan is a welcome change. There are a slew of issues "just crying out for attention," she said, and the new chairman "seems like he's going to charge ahead."

Strengthening the nation's open government and patent laws also are priorities for 2007, Leahy said. "Our patent system was created in another century, and we need to update it."

Specter, who remains chairman until early January, was traveling Wednesday and unable to offer reaction to Leahy's speech, his spokeswoman Courtney Boone said.