July 17, 2000 Volume 3, Issue 11

Peyton Knight, Editor

The $3 billion per year land grabbing monster known as CARA, "The Conservation and Reinvestment Act" (S.25), is due to make its way through the Energy Committee on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday of this week. IMMEDIATE ACTION IS NEEDED. YOU MUST CALL EARLY AND OFTEN DURING THESE NEXT THREE DAYS. We’ve come so far in our efforts to stop this major threat to private property rights—DON’T LET VICTORY SLIP AWAY!

1. There are still four Republicans in the Energy and Natural Resources Committee who are straddling the fence on CARA. All four of them need to hear your opposition to this nightmarish bill!

2. CONTINUE TO HAMMER SEN. FRANK MURKOWSKI’S (R-AK) OFFICE! Tell the Chairman of the Energy Committee to halt the CARA mark-up IMMEDIATELY! Sen. Murkowski: (202) 224-6665.

3. Call the Energy Committee staff and urge them not to hold a mark-up on CARA. They have been receiving many calls from concerned Americans who oppose CARA. MAKE SURE THEY HEAR YOUR VOICE AS WELL! Energy Committee: (202) 224-4971.

Your privacy rights are once again being threatened under the guise of "catching crooks". Any day now, the House of Representatives could take up a vote on H.R. 3886, the "International Counter-Money Laundering Act and Foreign Anticorruption Act of 2000" (H.R. 3886). This bill is the latest manifestation of dreaded "know-your-customer" legislation—only this time it will wreak havoc on an international level.

H.R. 3886 is enormously destructive on three major counts:

1. It is a direct violation against the privacy of consumers. In a vain attempt to curb international money laundering, Congress wants YOUR most personal financial information to be monitored by some faceless bureaucrat.

2. It grants broad discretionary power to the President and his appointees. Essentially Congress would shirk its legislative responsibility.

3. It would actually exacerbate the very ills it set out to cure. H.R. 3886 would create tons of forms, regulations and other bureaucratic red tape that would drastically impede the current process of monitoring international money launderers.

1. Call your Congressman and voice your opposition to H.R. 3886 and urge him/her to vote against it. Capitol Hill Switchboard: (202) 225-3121.

2. Call House Speaker Dennis Hastert and tell him NOT to bring H.R. 3886 up for a vote—especially not without the privacy-protection amendments that this bill so urgently needs. Speaker Hastert: (202) 225-2976.