As the USA Freedom Act was reintroduced Tuesday with the PATRIOT Act set to expire at the start of June, civil liberties advocates accused Congress of lacking the will to rein in spy agencies that have run roughshod over the Bill of Rights since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
The legislation, which bears the same name as a bill that died in the Senate last November, is aimed at reforming the National Security Agency’s bulk communications collection activities—most notably its call records database revealed in 2013 by NSA contractor-turned-whistleblower Edward Snowden and its “business records” program authorized under Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act.
Although it would narrow the landmark legislation, the USAF would effectively extend the PATRIOT Act until 2019.
Other policy riders included in the legislation would see the addition of a privacy advocate to the non-adversarial Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, and measures that would allow companies to report on federal law enforcement requests for data.
Reform-minded language will, however, struggle to survive the legislative long-haul, as similar proposals to narrow the scope and definition of bulk collection—including those offered by Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.)—were defeated during the 113th Congress’ surveillance debate.
Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.), a co-sponsor of the PATRIOT Act, introduced the legislation on Tuesday, along with Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.). Companion legislation was introduced in the Senate by Sens. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah).
The lawmakers, however, left some of the NSA’s most pervasive spy practices untouched, including the “upstream” internet collection program under Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act and the murky use of Executive Order 12333—two authorities that underpin bulk collection activities around the world that result in “inadvertent” collection of large quantities of data belonging to American citizens.
Despite the shortcomings, reform groups are willing to secure small victories where there’s bipartisan and bicameral support in hopes of achieving more meaningful reform down the road.
That’s especially true when competing legislation backed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Intelligence Committee chair Sen. Richard Burr would extend the PATRIOT Act, and the controversial surveillance programs, without any reforms.
“Introduction of the USA FREEDOM Act is a significant step toward meaningful surveillance reform,” said Amie Stepanovich, US Policy Manager at the civil liberties advocacy group Access.
“Congress has considered multiple ways to rein in the NSA for almost two years but has failed to take any real action. We are running out of time, and the people are running out of patience,” she added.
Not all privacy groups are convinced, including the American Civil Liberties Union, whose deputy legal director Jameel Jaffer sees value in resisting minor reforms, and allowing the PATRIOT Act to expire.
“Congress should let Section 215 sunset as it’s scheduled to, and then it should turn to reforming the other surveillance authorities that have been used to justify bulk collection,” he said in a statement, noting that the current USA Freedom Act “doesn’t go nearly far enough.”
Also opposed to the latest iteration of the bill are individuals who are, perhaps, closest to the NSA’s abusive spying practices. Whistleblowers Thomas Drake and Bill Binney, who exposed elements of the post-9/11 surveillance program and were dogged by the Justice Department with threats of espionage charges for their efforts, came out opposed to the legislation in an interview this week with US News and World Report.
Drake referred to the USA Freedom Act as a scheme “to keep the status quo in place.” He also referred to call records collection as “a shiny, shiny bright spot,” and said that “there’s a whole lot more being collected.”
