Bipartisan Senate Proposal Targets Phone Metadata Bulk Collection, FISA Transparency

"We're here to unveil reforms to our nation’s surveillance laws,” said Ron Wyden, D-Ore., codifying that security and liberty are linked. He said the senators planned to have introduced the legislation after our deadline Wednesday, designed to “set a high bar” and show “true intelligence reform.” The “disclosures over the last 100 days have created a sea change” in surveillance for the public, he said. Credibility is damaged in the U.S. and abroad, he said, saying it’s “not a small hiccup” and is “a national security problem.” He pointed to “exceptional momentum” behind these reforms and pointed to efforts both on and off Capitol Hill.

Wyden, Mark Udall, D-Colo., Rand Paul, R-Ky. and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., convened the meeting. They called for “comprehensive surveillance reform” that would “end the bulk collection of phone records of law-abiding Americans,” close the “back-door searches” loophole that allows the government to search for Americans’ communications without a warrant, and create an “independent constitutional advocate to argue significant cases before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court,” said a media advisory (http://1.usa.gov/1dI5TI6).

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper should resign due to his loss of credibility, Paul said. Blumenthal said the bill is not about “any single individual,” pointing to the legislation’s “larger purpose.”

NSA actions have led to “abuse” of Americans’ privacy and inaccuracies reported by the NSA to the FISA court, Udall said, hailing the reforms as significant. “We have been leading the efforts to reform these programs, even when they were highly classified,” Udall said of himself and Wyden. “These aren’t vague or abstract threats to our liberty.” He said there’s bipartisan and bicameral support for the updates. Americans with no ties to terrorism and espionage shouldn’t worry about having their records “vacuumed up” by U.S. agencies, he said. The Patriot Act Section 215 bulk collection of phone metadata must end, Udall said, expressing doubt about its effectiveness.

The bill outlaws the bulk collection of phone records, Wyden said. “Our bill closes tight” the “back door” that allows the intelligence communities to search Americans without a warrant, he said. He also called the FISC “bizarre.” Paul contributed to the bill in helping allow U.S. citizens to fight surveillance in court, Wyden said. The bill would also add to transparency in different ways, Wyden said. The four senators have talked to members of the House, he said.

"The constitutional advocate will be very important,” Paul said. He can’t understand how the Fourth Amendment harmonizes with millions of unnamed Verizon customers’ being wrapped up in the surveillance practices, said Paul. “That’s a constitutional question, that’s something we can debate in the open.” Paul questioned the secrecy of the FISC and said debate should be “in public, at the Supreme Court."

"These reforms are the right thing to do, but they are also essential to the public believing the system is complying with the law,” Blumenthal said. “The secrecy of this program is undermined if people lack trust” in the FISA court, he said, saying the court has been in need of updates for a long time. Opinions and other information should be more publicly available, according to Blumenthal. “Secret courts were one of the reasons we rebelled as a nation against the English.” The advocate should be “aggressive” in pursuing liberties, he said.

The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold its planned Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act hearing at 10 a.m. Oct. 2 in 226 Dirksen, said a notice released Wednesday. As expected (CD Sept 25 p2), the hearing’s two witnesses will be Clapper and National Security Agency Director Keith Alexander. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., has called for surveillance overhaul and introduced legislation to that effect, with a speech on the topic Tuesday, and a classified meeting on the matters Wednesday. The Senate Intelligence Committee holds a similar open hearing Thursday at 2 p.m. in 216 Hart.

Wyden and Udall have been fierce critics of the surveillance practices and released several joint statements questioning the government’s approach. Blumenthal, Wyden and Udall introduced legislation in August aimed at providing an adversarial process to the FISC, which House Intelligence Committee member Adam Schiff, D-Calif., has also advocated for in legislation this month, as has President Barack Obama (CD Sept 23 p5). The White House and Clapper have said they expect legislative changes to U.S. surveillance law.

The White House should appreciate the bipartisan thrust of the legislation, Wyden said. The White House “has virtually endorsed” the idea of an advocate, though without calling it a constitutional advocate or going into details, Blumenthal said. Wyden described the timing of the proposed legislation as tied to the Senate hearings set to begin Thursday: “We wanted to start the debate this afternoon by offering an actual piece of bipartisan legislation.”

The legislation is called the Intelligence Oversight and Surveillance Reform Act, said a news release from the four senators. They said the bill would amend Title V of FISA to prohibit the bulk collection of phone records, Title IV of FISA to prohibit bulk collection of communications records and the National Security Letter statutes to prohibit those being utilized in bulk collection as well as to require more reporting about government use of the NSLs. The bill will touch on Section 702 of FISA to prevent the back door searches, it specified, forbid agencies from collecting information “about the target” instead of to or from the individual in contexts outside terrorism, said a document on the bill distributed to reporters. The legislation would also make it harder for the government to do “reverse targeting,” which involves looking into foreign individuals as a means to acquire the records of a U.S. citizen without a warrant, the document said. The bill would restrict how the government uses information collected illegally, it said. It would permit private companies to release more data about how they have worked with government surveillance and would add public reporting requirements for the government. The bill would also give the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board the ability to compel testimony with force of law.