U.S. lawmakers warn proposed changes could doom spy bill

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[June 02, 2015]  By Mark Hosenball and Patricia Zengerle
 
 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - High-ranking members of the U.S. House of Representatives warned the Senate on Monday that proposed changes to the USA Freedom Act, a bill reforming domestic surveillance, were unlikely to pass the House and might doom the contentious spy program.

The renewed tension between the two houses came a day after the Senate failed to pass legislation extending the legal authority for U.S. spy agencies' collection of American's phone records in time to keep the program from expiring.

While a lapse of only a few days is seen as having little effect on intelligence agencies' capabilities, a legislative struggle is now looming over the Senate's proposed amendments to the Freedom Act aimed at extending surveillance powers.

The amendments include a proposal to keep spy agencies' bulk collection of Americans' telephone data in place for 12 months, double the six months included in the version of the Freedom Act the House passed overwhelmingly on May 13.

Bob Goodlatte, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and John Conyers, the panel's top Democrat, issued their statement while members of the Senate debated amendments to the bill proposed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Richard Burr, the Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

"The House is not likely to accept the changes proposed by Senator McConnell," the House lawmakers said in a statement.

The protracted debate over reforming the surveillance system, disclosed in 2013 by former spy agency contractor Edward Snowden, has tested the balance that Americans give to protecting their freedoms versus protecting their security.

"Whatever one thinks of the proposed new system, there needs to be a basic assurance that it will function as its proponents say it will," McConnell said on Monday, explaining why he sees the amendments as necessary.

If the Senate amends the Freedom Act and the House does not pass it, the senior House Republicans said the telephone data collection put in place after the Sept. 11 attacks and which lapsed at midnight on Sunday could end for good.

"GRANDFATHER CLAUSE"

The Freedom Act would end spy agencies' bulk collection of domestic telephone "metadata" and replace it with a more targeted system.

The records would be held by telecommunications companies, not the government, and the NSA would have to get court approval to gain access to specific data.

Many civil liberties groups feel the Freedom Act does not go far enough in protecting privacy, but Republican security hawks say it will hamper law enforcement's ability to track terrorism suspects.

"There's no question that this will lengthen the amount of time it takes us to connect the dots," said Burr.

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Despite the lapse in their powers, though, government agencies will retain legal authorization to collect telephone metadata for counterterrorism investigations opened before Sunday - a so-called "grandfather" clause.

Among the proposed amendments to the Freedom Act is a requirement that telecoms firms notify the government if they intend to stop holding onto call records for less than 18 months, which experts said is current telecom industry standard practice.

Companies such as Verizon Communications Inc and AT&T Inc would store the phone metadata, which includes dialed numbers and call lengths but not the content of conversations, which is now gathered by the National Security Agency.

They would turn it over to the government only if served with a court order targeting specific phone numbers or other narrow search terms. Telecommunications companies have made it clear to government officials that until a new law is passed, they are unwilling to discuss details about they could store and transmit the telephone metadata.

The companies now are guided by a Federal Communications Commission rule requiring them to retain records on "toll" or long-distance calls for at least 18 months. The rule technically applies to landline calls only, but companies have generally developed some record-keeping practices for wireless calls too.

The Freedom Act does contain a provision to compensate companies for costs they incur holding and turning over such data, which is something the carriers made clear they wanted in return for agreeing to store the data.
 


In the Senate, McConnell set a procedural vote to limit debate on the bill for Tuesday. If the amendments are approved, the amended bill must still pass the House before it can be sent to the White House for Democratic President Barack Obama's signature.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle, Mark Hosenball and Alina Selyukh; editing by David Storey and Stuart Grudgings)

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