This was an important week in Congress, as the House debated and then voted on an amendment to roll back the outrageous National Security Agency (NSA) program in which the government collects the details of virtually every phone call that every American makes. While the amendment failed narrowly, 217-205, the fact that it even came up for a vote over the objection of House Leadership is a sign that Congress is starting to feel the heat from the American people about the gradual erosion of our Constitutional rights. While supporters of the NSA program would like to think that Wednesday’s vote is the end of the debate, it’s actually just the beginning, and we have gained new momentum in the fight to restore our basic liberties. The amendment we voted on was introduced by Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) and Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) and it was attached to the defense appropriations bill, which funds our military and intelligence agencies. The amendment would have done three important things. First, it would have ended the mass surveillance of Americans by specifically stating that the federal government is not authorized under Section 215 of the Patriot Act to hold a pool of metadata on every phone call of every American. Second, it would have permitted the government to continue acquiring business records and other “tangible things” that are actually related to an authorized counterterrorism investigation. This would have forced the government to comply with the intent of Congress when it passed the Patriot Act. Third, the amendment would have imposed more robust judicial oversight of the NSA’s surveillance. The FISA court would have been required to be involved every time the NSA searched the records of an American citizen, and the court itself would have been required to have a substantive, statutory standard to apply to make sure the NSA does not violate our civil liberties. These common-sense reforms to the Patriot Act would have fulfilled the intent of the law and stopped the abuses of power that are being carried out in its name. As even Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) – one of the authors of the original Patriot Act – acknowledged, those who wrote the law in 2001 never intended for it to be used in the way it’s being used today. As Rep. Sensenbrenner wrote in an op-ed this week, “This is how freedom is lost — bit by bit, one secret decision at a time, out of necessity or for some higher purpose that we later come to regret. Such abuses must be reined in, and no false trade-off between freedom and security should be allowed to be decided behind closed doors ever again.” I agree. As we’ve seen with the IRS scandal and other scandals that have been rocking Washington during the past few months, government powers must be limited because governments, by their very nature, have a habit of abusing their powers. The reason I voted against reauthorizing the Patriot Act three times was because of its potential for abuse. Now those abuses are apparent for all to see. This week, we got 205 House members (94 Republicans and 111 Democrats) to buck a parade of Obama administration officials, former Bush administration officials, and Congressional leaders in both parties to stand strong for our Constitutional freedoms. Next time, we’ll get a majority. The fight has just begun.
Posted on: Sat, 27 Jul 2013 00:33:29 +0000
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