Senate Intelligence Surveillance Overhaul Clears Committee
The Senate Intelligence Committee voted Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein’s surveillance overhaul bill out of committee by an 11-4 margin Thursday. Senate Intelligence leaders have called for more review of U.S. surveillance activities as well as more transparency and other tweaks to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. But Feinstein, D-Calif., is a strong defender of the Section 215 authorities that authorize the bulk collection of phone metadata, which other lawmakers from the House and Senate Judiciary committees have this week proposed ending as part of the USA Freedom Act (CD Oct 28 p1). Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., introduced that act in the Senate.
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Senate Intelligence was split, however, with one member dissenting vocally, arguing the bill does not go far enough. Committee members Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Mark Udall, D-Colo., have urged an end to the bulk collection. Udall is a co-sponsor of the USA Freedom Act. A majority spokesman for Senate Intelligence declined to disclose who voted yes or no on the bill. Udall voted no, according to Udall’s office (http://1.usa.gov/HhGMAG). Wyden was also one of the four no votes, Wyden’s spokesman told us. Udall fought to amend the bill with stronger provisions, his office said. The USA Freedom Act “mirrors” the broad overhaul proposal Wyden and Udall introduced with Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., at the end of September, according to Udall’s release Thursday.
The House Intelligence Committee is also drafting surveillance overhaul legislation, its leaders said Tuesday at an open hearing (CD Oct 30 p4). But that legislation, like that of Senate Intelligence, does not propose to end bulk collection of phone metadata.
The Senate Intelligence Committee overhaul is called the FISA Improvements Act of 2013, and the bill text is now public (http://1.usa.gov/1gfiYfO). Feinstein in the past has described elements of what she wants to introduce but the committee work has been in secret. The act forbids collection of bulk communications records under Section 215 “except under specific procedures and restrictions” the bill establishes, and forbids collection of communications content under those authorities, according to a news release the committee released. The bill makes it a crime, with penalties of up to 10 years, for what it calls intentional unauthorized access to data acquired by FISA. It requires an annual public report on the number of times the National Security Agency queried the database of phone metadata and the number of times that led to an FBI investigation or probable cause order. The FISA Court must limit the number of NSA workers who can authorize or query this database, the committee said. None of the bulk records the government acquires under Section 215 would be reviewable without “reasonable articulable suspicion” that they are associated with international terrorism, and that determination must be run by the FISA court. The court can destroy any records if that standard isn’t met. The court must impose limits on the number of hops NSA analysts can make in their queries, the bill proposes.
The FISA court must impose a five-year limit of bulk records retention, the proposed legislation would dictate. NSA Director Keith Alexander told the House Intelligence Committee Tuesday that such data would have to be retained for three years in order to be useful. The proposed legislation would require intelligence agencies report to Congress in the event of legal violations or violations of executive orders. The NSA director and NSA inspector general would have to be confirmed by the Senate, according to the bill. The FISA court would also be able to dub amicus curiae to offer outside views.
The bill would also require attorney general-approved procedures for any data collection under Executive Order 12333, “including those collection activities conducted abroad and aimed at non-U.S. persons” and undergoing review every five years, it said. This order authorized the intelligence activities leaked this week as part of the NSA’s alleged MUSCULAR project -- in which the NSA taps the links connecting Google and Yahoo data centers. Privacy advocates told us Wednesday that these revelations may influence the legislative landscape going forward (CD Oct 31 p9). Hours after those reports broke, Leahy said he was concerned and that he will ask the White House for a briefing.
"Unfortunately, the bill passed by the Senate Intelligence Committee does not go far enough to address the NSA’s overreaching domestic surveillance programs,” Udall said in a statement. “I fought on the committee to replace this bill with real reform, and I will keep working to ensure our national security programs show the respect for the U.S. Constitution that Coloradans tell me they demand. As part of this effort, I will partner with other reform-minded colleagues from both political parties, like Senators Leahy, Wyden, and Paul to continue pushing on the Senate floor for real bipartisan reform that will help keep our nation safe while better protecting our privacy rights.”
The Senate Intelligence bill was expected to be voted out of committee, a spokeswoman for committee ranking member Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., told us. The committee has been in closed markup sessions for multiple days this week and announced the bill’s readiness by 2:30 Thursday, after first meeting for another closed markup at 2 p.m. “They only had a bit to finish up,” the Chambliss spokeswoman said. “They did most of the [markup] on Tuesday.”
Feinstein and Chambliss touted the bill’s transparency and privacy commitments in statements after the closed session ended. But Feinstein called the phone metadata program “legal and subject to congressional and judicial oversight” and important for national security. “These NSA intelligence collection programs are vital to our national security and must continue,” Chambliss said. Various other lawmakers dispute these contentions. “I look forward to working with Chairman Leahy and the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee to move legislation to the Senate floor as soon as possible,” Feinstein said. (jhendel@warren-news.com)