NSA Reforms: Today, President Obama acknowledged that NSA spying and surveillance has gone too far. I am pleased that the President announced needed reforms to the NSA’s surveillance programs, including steps to end bulk collection of American’s phone data. These are important first steps, but this must be the start of real changes at the NSA, not just temporary fixes. Spying on Americans does not make us safer and violates our most basic rights. Among the announced changes: • Ending the current practice of searching telephone data by requiring the agency to get explicit approval by the FISA Court to search metadata; • Create an advocacy panel made of up civil liberties and technology experts that will represent American’s privacy interests at the FISA Court; • Stop the United States’ spying on heads of state that our country considers close allies; • Within 60 days, make a determination to remove the storage of metadata out of government control possibly to a neutral third party; • Permit companies such as Google and Facebook to disclose the number of data requests they receive from the Federal government. This also applied to National Security Letters, which are letters from a Federal government agency demanding information related to national security issues; and • Limit the scope of whose phone data NSA may analyze by requiring an individual to have been in direct contact with a suspect. While these reforms are important, I believe the President should have gone much farther and simply ended the bulk collection of both phone records and emails of American citizens without a valid warrant. I will continue pushing in Congress for comprehensive reform that protects our civil liberties and reins in the NSA’s intelligence collection activities. This includes passing the bipartisan USA FREEDOM Act (H.R. 3361), which I’ve sponsored and which would end the bulk collection of American’s records and roll back the PATRIOT Act. We can protect our nation and preserve the rights enshrined in our Constitution.
Posted on: Fri, 17 Jan 2014 22:51:20 +0000
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