A coalition of civil liberties groups and others Wednesday ratcheted up pressure on the White House to move to appoint members to the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board. In a letter to President Obama, the groups voiced "growing concern over the lack of nominations" to the board, which has no members nor staff. The board was first created as part of a 2004 intelligence reform bill but was housed under the White House and criticized for lacking independence. It was recreated in 2007 as an independent panel.

"The Board is one of the few safeguards put into place to protect privacy and civil liberties following the major legal and policy changes put in place to help fight terrorism and strengthen law enforcement," according to the letter signed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Arab American Institute, the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and several other groups. "As your own cybersecurity review found in May, it is important to reconstitute [the board], accelerate the selection for its board members and consider to seek legislative amendments to broaden its scope to include cybersecurity-related issues." The groups called on the president to appoint the board's members before the end of the year so they can be seated by early 2010. The ACLU expressed similar concern in a report released Tuesday that called for expanding the board's power and scope.