Washington – Rep. Marilyn Musgrave has changed her vote again on FBI access to personal records from libraries and bookstores in terrorism investigations, becoming the lone Colorado Republican to favor restrictions on the USA Patriot Act.
Last year, Musgrave, of Fort Morgan, and Rep. Tom Tancredo, a Littleton Republican, were among a handful of legislators who switched their votes on record access after the vote was held open by House leaders.
They changed from voting to ban such searches to voting to allow them.
But when a similar measure came up Wednesday, Musgrave switched again and voted to block that part of the Patriot Act.
Musgrave said Thursday that she generally supports the Patriot Act, which has drawn opposition from conservatives worried about government intrusion and liberals concerned about personal privacy.
“This law has helped rein in several suspected terrorists. Yet, it needs to be tightened up so innocent library and bookstore patrons are assured of their privacy,” she said.
She said she changed her vote after the measure was altered to allow the government to obtain Internet-based library records.
The Patriot Act allowed such searches to be conducted under an order from the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, with a lower threshold of proof required than in criminal courts.
Other Colorado lawmakers voted along party lines, with Democrats voting to block library-records searches and other Republicans voting to allow them.
