Senators Ron Wyden, Mark Udall, and Rand Paul have jointly authored an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times. They write, in part:
Although the bill approved by the House is intended to end bulk collection, we are not at all confident that it would actually do so. The bill would require the government to use a “selection term” to secretly collect records, but the definition of “selection term” is left vague enough that it could be used to collect all of the phone records in a particular area code or all of the credit card records from a particular state. Meanwhile, the bill abandons nearly all of the other reforms contained in the Senate version of the USA Freedom Act, while renewing controversial provisions of the Patriot Act for nearly three more years.
This is clearly not the meaningful reform that Americans have demanded, so we will vigorously oppose this bill in its current form and continue to push for real changes to the law. This firm commitment to both liberty and security is what Americans — including the dedicated men and women who work at our nation’s intelligence agencies — deserve. We will not settle for less.
Read the op-ed on the L.A. Times.
h/t, @normative