Bill to Curtail NSA Surveillance Likely on Hold Until After Election NextGov (09/08/14) Volz, Dustin A bill that would limit the ability of the National Security Agency (NSA) to spy on Americans is not expected to make it to a vote in the Senate this year, and faces an uncertain future going into 2015. The bill, the USA Freedom Act, was originally authored by Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner and was passed by the House in May. The Senate version would effectively end the NSAs bulk collection of phone metadata, instead putting in place a system where phone companies would retain the data and intelligence agencies would be able to obtain it only after receiving the approval of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The bill contains several other measures, such as a more narrow definition of who can be considered a target of surveillance. The Senate bill enjoys wide support from both Democrats and Republicans, as well as tech companies, civil libertarians, and the Director of National Intelligence. However, multiple individuals on and off Capitol Hill tracking the bill say it has virtually no chance of being passed this year, due to a lack of support from Senate leadership and leading intelligence-reform Senators, some of whom seem to want to wait until next year, when a key part of the Patriot Act comes up for renewal.
Posted on: Tue, 09 Sep 2014 22:05:06 +0000
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