Lawmakers propose USA Freedom Act to curb NSA’s powers

Dozens of lawmakers from both parties introduced legislation Tuesday to rein in the National Security Agency’s spying powers.

The USA Freedom Act, which has 16 co-sponsors in the Senate and more than 70 in the House, would end the agency’s massive phone record collection program — one of the most controversial revelations from the leaks by Edward Snowden.

The bill was authored by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Rep. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.), the original author of the Patriot Act in 2001. 

{mosads}In a statement, Sensenbrenner said the Patriot Act has helped keep Americans safe, but that “somewhere along the way, the balance between security and privacy was lost.” 

“It’s now time for the Judiciary committees to again come together in a bipartisan fashion to ensure the law is properly interpreted, past abuses are not repeated and American liberties are protected,” he said. 

Civil liberties groups cheered the introduction of the USA Freedom Act, saying it would help end the NSA’s privacy violations. 

“The last five months have proven that the NSA cannot be trusted with the surveillance authorities they have been given by a secret court without the knowledge or approval of the American people,” Michelle Richardson, a lobbyist for the American Civil Liberties Union, said. 

“The only way to stop the NSA’s collect-it-all mentality is for Congress to pass legislation that prohibits the intelligence community from engaging in the dragnet surveillance of Americans’ communications.”

Other Senate co-sponsors include Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Dean Heller (R-Nev.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). In the House, the bill is backed by Reps. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), Justin Amash (R-Mich.), Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and Darrell Issa (R-Calif.).

The National Rifle Association, the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Constitution Project and other civil liberties groups have also endorsed the bill. 

In addition to ending the bulk phone record collection, the USA Freedom Act would strengthen prohibitions against targeting the communications of Americans and would require the government to more aggressively delete information accidentally collected on Americans. 

The legislation would create a special advocate’s office tasked with arguing in favor of stronger privacy protections before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Currently, the court only hears arguments from government attorneys in favor of surveillance. 

The advocate would be able to appeal decisions, and the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board would be given subpoena power to investigate issues related to privacy and national security. 

The bill would also require the attorney general to disclose significant court decisions related to an interpretation of law. Companies like Google, Microsoft and Facebook would be able to reveal more statistics about the information they turn over to the government.

But the bill is expected to face fierce opposition from the NSA’s supporters in Congress, led by the top lawmakers on the House and Senate Intelligence committees.

“I will do everything I can to prevent this [phone data] program from being canceled,” Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said at a hearing earlier this month. 

Under the program, the NSA collects records — such as phone numbers, call times and call durations — on all U.S. phone calls. The program does not collect the contents of any conversations, the NSA says.

Supporters argue the program is critical for thwarting terrorist attacks and does little to harm privacy rights.

Feinstein is expected to introduce her own NSA reform bill Tuesday. That bill would tighten oversight and increase transparency but preserve the core of the NSA’s power, including its phone data collection.

But in a statement, Leahy argued that “modest transparency and oversight provisions are not enough.”

“The government surveillance programs conducted under the Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act are far broader than the American people previously understood. It is time for serious and meaningful reforms so we can restore confidence in our intelligence community,” the powerful Senate chairman said. 

The White House did not respond to a request to comment on the bill.