Surveillance reform passed with mixed enthusiasm
 

[June 05, 2015]  By Josh Peterson | Watchdog.org
 
 WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Senate passed the USA FREEDOM Act Monday afternoon, ending the uncertainty surrounding the future of surveillance law after Sunday’s expiration of a controversial NSA program.

In a 67-32 vote, the Senate’s passage of the USA FREEDOM Act ends all bulk collection of Americans’ phone records under both the USA Patriot Act and provisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and requires the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to make its opinions public.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., one of the original authors of the Patriot Act, passed through the House and has received the support of the White House, which called the bill a “reasonable compromise balancing security and privacy[.]”

Despite such broad support, the bill was not without strong opposition.

“I am relieved that, in the end, my colleagues and I were able to come together and make sure that a few of the federal government’s key counterterrorism tools are authorized in law,” said Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., in a statement.

“However, the fact that it took us this long to come to an agreement – and forced the expiration of critical national security measures – is deeply disappointing. We must put an end to this the era of crisis governing, especially when it jeopardizes key measures that work to keep Americans safe,” said Carper.

But among the bill’s objectors was Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who served as chairman and ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee that oversaw the drafting of the original USA Patriot Act.

“Given the extensive and effective privacy and civil liberties safeguards already in place, I strongly supported a clean reauthorization of the existing law. Unfortunately, such legislation could not gather sufficient support in today’s climate of misinformation about our efforts to stay one step ahead of the terrorists,” said Hatch in a statement.

As Watchdog.org previously reported, a large transideological coalition of organizations had pushed for Congress to let Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which authorized the FBI to require phone carriers to hand over phone records to the National Security Agency, expire.

These same organizations, along with the support of major trade coalitions — such as BSA | The Software Alliance and the Consumer Electronics Association — and companies like Yahoo, supported the passage of the USA FREEDOM Act.

“The USA FREEDOM Act realizes hard-fought and much-needed wins for Internet users everywhere, including: prohibiting the bulk collection of user data under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), increasing transparency into government demands for user information, and introducing important checks and balances in the FISA process by appointing independent experts and requiring public disclosure of the most important decisions of the FISA Court,” said Suzanne Philion, director of corporate communications at Yahoo, in a statement.

But Hatch denounced several of the provisions within the bill, calling into question the civil liberties arguments used to advance it through the upper chamber.

“One of the other major flaws of the USA FREEDOM Act is its amicus curiae provision, which would insert a legal advisor into the FISA court process to make arguments to advance privacy and civil liberties,” said Hatch.

“Such an approach threatens to insert left-wing activists into an incredibly sensitive and already well-functioning process, a radical move that would stack the deck against our law enforcement and intelligence communities,” said the Utah senator.