from the Quis-Custodiet-Ipsos-Custodes? dept.
House Passes Bill Preserving F.B.I. Surveillance Powers (archive)
The House passed a bipartisan adjustment of key surveillance laws on Wednesday, cobbling together an unusual coalition of lawmakers to approve some new privacy protections for Americans and extend three expiring F.B.I. tools for investigating terrorism and espionage.
The vote appeared to be a breakthrough after weeks of negotiations in both the House and the Senate to prevent the surveillance tools from expiring this weekend and to address abuses identified in F.B.I. applications to wiretap a former Trump campaign adviser. Though civil libertarians in both parties opposed it as a half-measure that fell short of the kind of sweeping protections they favor, the bill passed with strong Democratic and Republican support, 278 to 136.
[...] In the Senate, Republican leaders urged their colleagues to support the House agreement and pledged to move it "as soon as possible." They were trying to line up an expedited Thursday vote, but their aides said it would depend on whether the bill's opponents would use Senate rules to slow down passage. A handful of senators have long championed broader surveillance reforms, like Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, and Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, and argue that the House changes leave Americans' privacy at risk of intrusion by government investigators.
Even if they stall the bill, once it does make it to a Senate vote, a similar bipartisan coalition of lawmakers most likely will amount to the 60 votes needed to overcome objections.
See also: House passes key surveillance bill with deadline looming
Sen. Mike Lee urges Trump to veto House FISA bill
(Score: 4, Insightful) by fustakrakich on Thursday March 12 2020, @03:15PM (2 children)
Disaster relief, not so much.
Still can't get tested?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday March 12 2020, @03:21PM
Example of how they really feel [americanindependent.com]
And before you go shooting off about how much better the dems are, don't forget the disappointments and bullshit that led to those huge republican victories ten years ago.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 13 2020, @02:51AM
Trump is signalling a veto:
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/487366-trump-tells-gop-senator-he-does-not-support-house-surveillance-deal [thehill.com]
With the threat of a veto, the senate is unlikely to vote in favor of the bill.
That just isn't normal. Since when does a president ever limit government power? It's time to support him.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Bot on Thursday March 12 2020, @03:55PM (6 children)
Bipartisan laws are the worst. The two latest one here were, adoption of the euro and job destabilization. The latter is most interesting because it is called legge Biagi in memory of a lower ranking politician that got murdered by terrorists. So, the emotional response was to put into law what he was working on. When the same law was proposedin France, violent protests erupted.
If on the surface it seems innocent, read a second time or prepare for the terms to be progressively altered.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by tangomargarine on Thursday March 12 2020, @04:51PM
Usually it's a telltale sign if they give it some dumb acronym like B.A.B.Y.S.M.I.L.E.S. or something, too.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 12 2020, @05:26PM (3 children)
The problem is that every law that's supposed to expire never actually expires.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 12 2020, @06:07PM (1 child)
yeah, like the income tax. dumb slaves pay it like it's perfectly reasonable. fucking cowardly whores!
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Thursday March 12 2020, @09:10PM
Don't pay income tax A/C. You're a sovereign citizen so those laws don't apply to you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 13 2020, @03:44AM
Far too often, but not always. [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 1) by aixylinux on Thursday March 12 2020, @08:15PM
It is said that there are two parties in Washington, the evil party and the stupid party. And occasionally the parties get together and do something both evil and stupid. This is known as "bipartisanship."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 12 2020, @03:59PM
But hey now, thanks to the head Cheetos, it is now legal for an american to hire a foreign intelligence agency to spy on fellow americans.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 12 2020, @04:25PM (2 children)
The FISA warrants allow wiretaps that are 2 steps away from the target.
If the warrant is for X, you can spy on Z if there exists a Y who communicates with both. Think about it. Would there be a person Y who communicates with both the supposed target and with Donald Trump? Why yes, that would obviously be the case. There are numerous examples of person Y, both within the campaign and as journalists.
That is no accident. The real target was obviously Donald Trump. Because of the 2-step rule, it was easy to avoid putting his name on the FISA warrant.
(Score: 2) by Aegis on Thursday March 12 2020, @11:13PM
Oh shit, he's on to the DNC plot to use it's time machine to go back to 2001 and convince Republicans to sponsor the PATRIOT Act so they could enact it and then renew it, with a few minor privacy protections added, in 2020!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 13 2020, @01:52AM
Was the 10% wiretap capacity rule part of the sunset provisions? AKA the rule that lets them warrantless wiretap every american 36.5 days a year.
Does anybody have a link on which parts sunset?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 12 2020, @05:11PM
And we will be back with pretty much the same story next time it needs reauthing. No vote will ever change this.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 12 2020, @06:09PM (1 child)
once again there are only two congressmen with the real american position. hang the rest!
(Score: 4, Interesting) by vux984 on Thursday March 12 2020, @08:12PM
Perfect is the enemy of good. If this bill is a step in the right direction it should be approved. That doesn't mean the job is done.
Paul and Wyden know damned well they aren't going to stop this bill out right, it clearly has sufficient bi-partisan support -- so they should be doing as much as they can within the system rather than standing outside of it and simply getting ignored because their votes aren't required to pass it.
So this arguably reduces their outsider position to be a PR stunt.
That said, given the bill was going to pass regardless, a PR stunt may well be the best option they have to keep the issue in the news and advance their cause.
Finally, 276 to 138 is not TWO holdouts, there's a lot of people who voted against this; whether they wanted even more surveillance or less is an open question?
(Score: 3, Touché) by crafoo on Friday March 13 2020, @06:22PM
Oh, it's so heartwarming to see dems and repubs coming together to violate our constitutional rights. At least they can agree on pushing the boot heel into our necks.