(WASHINGTON) – Today, John Conyers, Jr.
(D-Mich.), Ranking Member of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, joined
former Judiciary Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr. (R-Wisc.) and 79
other members of the House in introducing H.R. 3361,
the USA FREEDOM Act: United and Strengthening America by Fulfilling
Rights and Ending Eavesdropping, Dragnet Collection, and Online
Monitoring Act. H.R. 3361 will end the bulk collection of Americans’
communications records, create an Office of the Special
Advocate to represent privacy interests in the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Court, and increase government oversight and public
scrutiny of the government’s domestic surveillance programs. After the
legislation was introduced, Rep. Conyers issued the
following statement:
U.S. Representative John Conyers, Jr. |
“Over the course of the past six months, the public
has come to learn about the sweeping nature of our government’s
surveillance programs. The picture drawn is one of a surveillance
system run amuck. Our intelligence community has operated
without proper congressional oversight or regard for Americans’ privacy
and civil liberties,” said Conyers.
“One of the most troubling abuses that has come to
light is the National Security Agency’s (NSA) collection of telephone
records for virtually every phone call made within the United States.
Although the NSA has had every opportunity to
make its case, it has not demonstrated that the telephone metadata
collection program is of much value to its counterterrorism
mission. Similarly, the government has failed to square its tortured
reading of Section 215 the PATRIOT Act with the plain text of
the statute, or with our clear intent when we authored that provision.
“Today, with the introduction of the USA FREEDOM Act, that all changes.
“Together with my colleague Congressman
Sensenbrenner - the former Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee,
the current Chairman of our Crime Subcommittee, and the principal author
of the USA PATRIOT Act - I have introduced a bill that
will curb some of the worst excesses of the government’s domestic
surveillance operations. Specifically, the USA FREEDOM Act will:
Ø Preserve the responsible use of Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act for cases that are actually relevant to an authorized counterterrorism investigation.
Ø Create an Office of the Special Advocate to represent the public interest and privacy concerns before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
Ø Give private Internet and telecommunications companies the ability to publicly disclose certain information about their cooperation with the U.S. government.
Ø Increase transparency by making significant FISA Court decisions available to the public.
“This legislation is principled, bipartisan, and
reasonable. It enjoys significant support in the House Judiciary
Committee, the primary committee of jurisdiction for these matters. It
stops short of simply ending
all government surveillance under Section 215. It ends dragnet
surveillance, and does so without compromising the intelligence
community’s ability to keep us safe.
“Our bipartisan coalition is growing both in
numbers and resolve. We must act now to restore our privacy, and to
reject the false choice between security and civil liberties.”
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