Senate bill would eliminate mass collection of phone records, reform FISA court

Published time: September 25, 2013 23:14

AFP Photo / Spencer Platt

A bipartisan group of US lawmakers has introduced legislation that, if approved, would attempt to strengthen civil liberties and curb the power of the secret FISA courts that approved widespread foreign and domestic NSA surveillance policies.
The bill, dubbed the Intelligence Oversight and Surveillance Reform Act, bundles a number of ideas proposed in roughly 12 other bills drafted in the wake of the leaks by NSA contractor-turned  whistleblower Edward Snowden, which first began in June.
The legislation would prevent the National Security Agency from bulk-collecting Americans’ phone records under section 215 of the Patriot Act, easily the most polarizing stipulation in that law. The bill would also eliminate the NSA’s authority to install so-called “backdoors” to monitor Americans’ various methods of internet communication.
However, according to The Guardian, there is little congressional support for any bill that would prevent the NSA from monitoring foreigners.
Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon revealed the Intelligence Oversight and Surveillance Reform Act in a press conference Wednesday alongside Senator Rand Paul, a Republican.
“The disclosures over the last 100 days have caused a sea change in the way the public views the surveillance system,” Wyden said. “We are introducing legislation that is the most comprehensive bipartisan intelligence reform proposal since the disclosures of last June.”
If the bill passes technology companies will no longer be prohibited from revealing how many surveillance requests the government issued for users’ data. A privacy watchdog would also be instituted.


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