Rep. Schiff pushes bill to create FISA privacy advocate

{mosads}His bill, called the “Ensuring Adversarial Process in the FISA Court Act,” would also technical experts to provide guidance to the FISC and would make it easier for outside groups to file briefs with the court. 

“An independent voice before the FISC will not only assure that the privacy concerns of Americans are taken into account, but it will also improve the quality of FISA court opinions by giving judges access to contrary views. It may also result in the restructuring of programs to improve privacy safeguards while assuring the government access to information necessary to protect the country,” Schiff said in a statement.

The White House has endorsed the idea of having a privacy advocate at the FISC, and Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Tom Udall (D-N.M.) have introduced similar legislation.

Schiff, a member of the Intelligence Committee, is also pushing bills to require that the Senate confirm FISC judges and to restructure the NSA’s phone data collection program.