Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick: “today, I voted against H.R. 1877, the Child Sex Wiretapping Act. Let me be clear in that I do support the goals of the…”

“today, I voted against H.R. 1877, the Child Sex Wiretapping Act. Let me be clear in that I do support the goals of the bill which seek to provide law enforcement with the tools necessary to apprehend those who sexually exploit children. It is clear that persons who use the Internet or any other means for the sexual exploitation of children deserve to have the full force of the law brought against their activity. My concern, however, is that the measure before us sweeps too broadly and will unduly burden the legitimate rights of Americans. There are provisions of the bill that allow wiretapping where consenting adults engage in activity that, although questionable, may in fact be legal. The protection of children is of paramount importance, but in protecting children, we should not impugn the potentially legitimate rights of many of our Nation's citizens. We have already granted the Justice Department, the FBI and other police authorities unprecedented authority to wiretap in our efforts to combat the war on terrorism. I argue that wiretap authority already exists for child sexual exploitation. These same authorities also possess the power to intercept e-mail and other electronic communications. Furthermore, States already have the authority to wiretap for the crimes specified in the bill. We are living in a trying time and we should take every precaution before granting any additional power to police authorities.”