Barney Frank For Congress - Civil Rights / Civil Liberties

Frank Opposes Republican Resolution That Expresses Unqualified Support For Financial Surveillance Program

Sun, 30 Jul 2006 13:40:37 -0400

I am the senior Democrat on Financial Services, and I have been for 3 1/2 years. I was, about a month ago, asked to a briefing. I was asked to a briefing and told that this was about to be made public and, therefore, they were going to brief me. But that if I listened to the briefing, when it was made public I couldn't talk about it.
Click here to read more

Frank speaks out against the Patriot Act of 2001, House debate, October 12, 2001

Thu, 11 Aug 2005 10:44:13 -0400

PATRIOT ACT OF 2001 -- (House of Representatives - October 12, 2001

Mr. FRANK. Mr. Speaker, we recognize that the chairman of the full committee tried hard to preserve some of our process; but powers beyond, it seem to me, his control have given us the least democratic process for debating questions fundamental to democracy I have ever seen.

But I want to get to substance while continuing to deplore this outrageous and unfair procedure whereby the product that we voted on in committee cannot even be offered. No amendments. No amendments.

But I want to explain what the substantive problem is. What we decided to do in committee, correctly, was to give to the law enforcement officials all the expanded powers they asked for, because we want to be protected. And electronic evolution requires an evolution in the powers. But we simultaneously tried to put into effect a full set of safeguards to minimize the chance that human beings, fallible ones, would abuse the powers.

The problem is that the bill before us today preserves the fullness of the powers, but substantially weakens the safeguards against the misuse of the powers. The major safeguard was the sunset. Knowing that within 2 years they would have to come back for a renewal of these powers was the best way to build into the bureaucracy respect and avoid abuse. A 5-year sunset greatly diminishes that. They can figure, hey, we have got a couple of years and if we come in in the fifth year and we can say, Well, there weren't any problems lately, that is one thing.

Frank participates in Panel Discussion on the USA-PATRIOT Act, March 6, 2002

Mon, 29 Aug 2005 17:31:12 -0400

EXCERPTS FROM PANEL DISCUSSION ON USA PATRIOT ACT
American Criminal Law Review, Fall 2002

Frank receives Martin Luther King, Jr. Award at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, January 30, 2002

Thu, 4 Aug 2005 11:26:10 -0400

". . . Frank told the students that the best way they can honor Dr. King is to vote at this year's elections, as one of King's greatest accomplishments was the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

"If you were black and you lived in Mississippi in the summer of 1964 and you tried to register to vote, you certainly would be economically ruined and you had a good chance of being badly beaten or killed, and that got changed with the Voting Rights Act of 1965," he said.

"Please don't tell me that you honor the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King and then forget to vote this year. Nothing could be more incompatible with the memory of this extraordinary human being who fought so hard and so successfully to allow people to vote in areas where they physically couldn't than people who have the right to vote and ignore it."