Andrea Peterson reports:
While the government remains shut down because Congress can’t agree to keep it funded, a Democrat and a Republican are asking their colleagues to support legislation to bring more transparency to the process for approving NSA surveillance programs.
Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) sent a letter to their colleagues Tuesday asking them to join in co-sponsoring companion legislation to the FISA Court Reform Act (S.1467) introduced in the upper chamber by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) this summer.
Their legislation would create an Office of the Constitutional Advocate led by a citizen’s advocate appointed by the judicial branch who would argue for civil liberties in the FISA Court process. It was also incorporated into the bipartisan proposal introduced by Blumenthal and Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Mark Udall (D-Colo.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).
Read more on the Washington Post.