Leahy, Specter Push For Postponement Of Finalized Guidelines For FBI

 

WASHINGTON (Monday, August 18, 2008) – Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Ranking Member Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) today urged Attorney General Michael Mukasey to postpone approval of proposed new guidelines for Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) conduct in national security investigations, and to allow for more time to consult with Congress and other interested parties on the planned changes.

 

In a letter sent Monday, Leahy and Specter urged Mukasey to delay taking any additional action on the guidelines until the after FBI Director Robert Muller testifies before the Committee at a September 17 oversight hearing.  The delay would provide Congress time to examine the guidelines and assess the impact of the proposed changes on civil liberties.  The Attorney General has indicated that he is poised to sign off on new guidelines as early as this week.  The guidelines aim to improve the FBI’s ability to gather intelligence and respond to national security matters, but would also provide additional authorities not currently in law, allowing the FBI to employ more expansive investigative practices with limited oversight.  If approved by the Attorney General, the proposed changes to existing regulations would go into effect on October 1.

 

“Efforts to harmonize the rules governing criminal and national security matters also raise potential civil liberties concerns, given the broader latitude currently given to investigators to consider race and ethnicity in national security matters,” Leahy and Specter wrote.  “The important aims of the guidelines, and their potential implications for civil liberties, require a meaningful dialogue between Congress and [the Department of Justice].”

 

The full text of the letter sent by Leahy and Specter follows.  A PDF is also available here.

 

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August 18, 2008

 

The Honorable Michael B. Mukasey

Attorney General

United States Department of Justice

950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20530

 

Dear Attorney General Mukasey:

 

We write to request a brief delay in your approval of the proposed new guidelines for the investigative activities of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).  We are grateful that you have contacted us personally to discuss your plans.  We also appreciate that the Department of Justice (DOJ) has recently briefed congressional staff on the guidelines and allowed them to review the draft text, although we would have preferred to retain a copy of the documents.  The revisions to the guidelines represent an important step towards our shared goal of improving the FBI’s intelligence capabilities.  The guidelines also reflect a laudatory effort to ensure that front-line agents are given clear rules to follow in pursuit of their investigations.  Nevertheless, efforts to harmonize the rules governing criminal and national security matters also raise potential civil liberties concerns, given the broader latitude currently given to investigators to consider race and ethnicity in national security matters, as outlined in DOJ’s June 2003 Guidance Regarding the Use of Race by Federal Law Enforcement Agencies. 

 

The important aims of the guidelines, and their potential implications for civil liberties, require a meaningful dialogue between Congress and DOJ.  Notwithstanding the work of our staff, Congressional consultation is difficult during the recess period.  Moreover, these issues are sufficiently important to merit a public hearing.  After all, although prior consultation on such guidelines is not mandatory, the level of public and Congressional confidence in the guidelines will inform later legislation and oversight activities.

 

The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled a hearing with FBI Director Mueller for September 17, 2008.  This presents an opportunity to explore the potential impact of the new guidelines on both the FBI’s intelligence collection efforts and Americans’ civil liberties.  Accordingly, we request that you wait until the guidelines have been subjected to such further review before finalizing them.

 

Sincerely,  

 

PATRICK LEAHY                                         ARLEN SPECTER                                       

Chairman                                                         Ranking Member 

 

cc:  Honorable Robert S. Mueller, III 

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