Senators on Tuesday afternoon voted against three amendments to the USA Freedom Act proposed by majority leader Mitch McConnell, each of which would have essentially gutted key provisions of the house-passed legislation. The amendments were bad news for both privacy and civil liberties, and by “filling the tree” with his amendments, McConnell essentially prevented Senators Ron Wyden, Rand Paul, and others from proposing any that might have strengthened the bill.
Senator Al Franken (D-Minnesota) urged lawmakers to vote no on all amendments earlier this afternoon, saying, “They would only prolong and deepen the uncertainty around the continuation of important national security authorities.”
They listened.
Amendment 1449 would have required companies to give the government 180 days notice if they intended to change data retention practices to keep call detail records for less than 18 months. It also would have required the Director of National Intelligence to certify, 30 days in advance, that the USA Freedom Act was “operationally effective to allow the timely retrieval of foreign intelligence information,” and could be implemented without harming national security or the protection of information and classified intelligence sources and methods relevant to collecting phone records.
Amendment 1450 would have delayed the effective date of the bill from six months to one year after it is enacted, unnecessarily extending the NSA bulk collection program.
Amendment 1451 would have changed the amicus structure of the USA Freedom Act to allow the FISA court to control the organization of its own proceedings. It would have limited the duties and access of the public interest advocate, doing away with the requirement that the Court provide written notice explaining when and why it chose not to appoint amicus advocate.
Amendment 1452 would have gutted the accountability provision of the USA Freedom Act, but just before voting Senator McConnell tabled it. If it had passed, the Director of National Intelligence would no longer be required to conduct a declassification review of FISA Court Decisions, declassifying and releasing opinions or summaries of legal opinions. With the amendment, it would have been difficult to assure that the court was using its surveillance powers the way that Congress intended, preserving the secrecy that has undermined mass surveillance in the first place.
By killing all three amendments, privacy-minded Senators have won a small victory. Now all that’s left is passing the actual bill. Voting could commence as early as this afternoon.
