Dale Bumpers: “I recently introduced S. 1968, the Telephone Privacy Act. This bill, which has bipartisan support, has nothing to do…”

“I recently introduced S. 1968, the Telephone Privacy Act. This bill, which has bipartisan support, has nothing to do with Linda Tripp or anybody else. I first proposed legislation regarding telephone privacy in 1984 when it was revealed that Charles Wick, who was head of the United States Information Agency, had tape-recorded President Reagan and President Carter and several Cabinet officials 84 times without their knowledge. Can you remember when you were a kid and you used to listen to telephone conversations? The announcer would call somebody or somebody would call in because they had the answer to a question, and you would hear beeping in the background. In those days, that was a sign that you were being recorded. Somewhere along the line, that practice was discontinued. Today, you can tape-record your very best friend and not tell that friend and hand it to all three networks for use on the evening news and no federal crime has been committed. Not too long ago, Attorney General Reno testified before the Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Justice, Commerce, on which I sit. At that time, we were working on this bill, and I asked her about it. She said, ``Well, Florida already has such a law that makes it a criminal offense to tape-record a conversation without telling somebody.'' I said, ``How long have they had the law?'' She said, ``Since around 1970.'' I said, ``Were you the prosecutor in Dade County at the time that happened?'' She said she was.”