Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by cmn32480 on Thursday May 14 2015, @12:59PM   Printer-friendly
from the the-name-is-the-opposite-of-what-it-does dept.

The United States House of Representatives passed the USA Freedom Act after an hour of debate with no amendments allowed:

The USA Freedom Act was approved in a 338-88 vote, with approximately equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans voting against. The bill's supporters say it will disallow bulk collection of domestic telephone metadata, in which the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has regularly ordered phone companies to turn over such data. The Obama administration claims such collection is authorized by Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act, which is set to expire June 1. However, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit recently held that Section 215 does not provide such authorization.

Today's legislation would prevent the government from issuing such orders for bulk collection and instead rely on telephone companies to store all their metadata — some of which the government could then demand using a "specific selection term" related to foreign terrorism. Bill supporters maintain this would prevent indiscriminate collection. [...] However, the legislation may not end bulk surveillance and in fact could codify the ability of the government to conduct dragnet data collection.

"We're taking something that was not permitted under regular section 215 ... and now we're creating a whole apparatus to provide for it," Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., said on Tuesday night during a House Rules Committee proceeding. "The language does limit the amount of bulk collection, it doesn't end bulk collection," Rep. Amash said, arguing that the problematic "specific selection term" allows for "very large data collection, potentially in the hundreds of thousands of people, maybe even millions."

The measure now goes to the Senate where its future is uncertain. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has declined to schedule the bill for consideration, and is instead pushing for a clean reauthorization of expiring Patriot Act provisions that includes no surveillance reforms.

Senators Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., have threatened to filibuster any bill that extends the Patriot Act without also reforming the NSA.

Conservative GOP Congressman Credits Snowden For Changing His Position on Patriot Act
In Landslide Vote, House Overwhelmingly Passes USA Freedom Act without Amendments

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by Whoever on Thursday May 14 2015, @03:33PM

    by Whoever (4524) on Thursday May 14 2015, @03:33PM (#182941) Journal

    The first term used in a query: ".*"

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2