Legislative efforts intended to reform aspects of the United States Intelligence Community's surveillance operations have cleared Congress and are expected to be signed into law imminently by President Obama.
The Senate voted 67-32 on Tuesday in favor of the USA Freedom Act, adopting the same version of the bill that had overwhelmingly passed the House of Representatives last month by 338-88.
Backers of the USA Freedom Act say the bill ends the bulk collection of telephone call records by the National Security Agency as revealed in 2013 by Edward Snowden, a former NSA contractor, as well as brings reform to the secret court that oversees surveillance requests and increases transparency.
Passage of the bill signals "the first major overhaul of government surveillance laws in decades," Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) said on the Senate floor following Tuesday's vote.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), an adamant critic of the bill up until the moment Tuesday's vote occurred, had unsuccessfully tried earlier in the day to tack on amendments that opponents said would have weakened efforts to reform the nation's surveillance operations. Had McConnell's amendments been accepted by the Senate, then the new version of the USA Freedom Act would have had to go back to the House to be voted again, further delaying passage.
With the Senate's passage of the "clean" reform bill that's already cleared the House, the USA Freedom Act is expected to soon end up on the desk of President Barack Obama and be signed into law.
McConnell called passage of the bill on Tuesday "a resounding victory for Edward Snowden," who two years earlier had provided the press with top-secret documents concerning the NSA's surveillance programs.
Earlier this week on Sunday, White House press secretary Josh Earnest issued a statement urging the Senate to act swiftly in passing the USA Freedom Act because the administration had determined the latest edition of the bill "struck a reasonable compromise balancing security and privacy—allowing us to continue to protect the country while implementing various reforms, including prohibiting bulk collection through the use of Section 215, FISA pen registers and National Security Letters."
Section 215 of the Patriot Act - the post-9/11 counterterrorism legislation signed by Pres. George W. Bush after the 2001 terrorist attacks - had up until recently authorized the NSA to collect telephone call records in bulk of millions of American citizens regardless of whether or not they've been suspected of any wrongdoing. Sec. 215 authorities expired on Monday without being renewed, days after a federal appeals court said that it did not think the Patriot Act was ever intended to let the intelligence community collect data on innocent citizens.
Reader Comments
Britain has more surveillance cameras than any other country in the world. Bromley, a town in the south east of greater London has more cameras that anywhere else in the country, all under the guise of law enforcement.
Rand Paul’s New Crusade: The Secret 9/11 Docs
Coming off the Patriot Act fight, the presidential hopeful is sponsoring a bill to declassify 28 pages of a 9/11 report that may blame Saudi Arabia.
Senator Rand Paul, the man of the hour when it comes to pushing back against government secrecy, is throwing his weight behind a fresh push to declassify 28 pages from a 2002 Senate inquiry into the causes of 9/11.
The Kentucky Republican is sponsoring legislation called the “Transparency for the Families of 9/11 Act,” which would force the release of the disputed pages. With his support, an important issue that has languished far too long may be finally gaining traction.
Paul is a big catch for the 28 pages movement, as advocates describe their effort. Former Florida senator Bob Graham, who has been banging the drum on the classified pages for years, will appear alongside Paul at a press conference at the Capitol on Tuesday morning to lend his gravitas to the occasion.
Graham led the Senate inquiry and drafted the pages that have been kept under wraps. Without violating his oath of secrecy about specifics, the Democrat has been quite outspoken, saying the redacted pages “point a very strong finger at Saudi Arabia as being the principal financier” of the 9/11 attacks. He has also said the U.S. government’s protective stance toward the Saudis allows them to continue spreading the extreme Wahhabi version of Islam that has led to the rise of ISIS.