I expect to see a lot of commentary in the media on the bill introduced yesterday by Senator Leahy and Representative Sensenbrenner. Here are just a few from my morning feed:
After nearly five months of controversy and debate, members of Congress may face a clear choice over the National Security Agency’s program to collect the phone records of nearly every American: endorse it or shut it down.
Read more by Ellen Nakashima.
The Leahy/Sensenbrenner bill has political legs. ACLU, Center for Democracy and Technology, and other groups “strongly support” it, and it has bipartisan support in both chambers, including from Senators Udall and Blumenthal. I thought it would be helpful to compare this bill to the Wyden/Udall proposal. There’s a comparison based on each bill’s table of contents, and a comparison based on some highlighted substantive provisions, each of which should be illuminating. Assuming the text of each bill is foolproof enough to constrain the NSA as indicated, there are many similarities, and few differences between the proposals.
Read more by Jennifer Granick.
Over the last several months, members of Congress have introduced at least two dozen spying reform and transparency bills. Today, a new proposal called the USA FREEDOM Act from Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Ct.) was introduced to significantly limit the collection and use of Americans’ information under our nation’s spying laws. The ACLU strongly supports the legislation.
Read more on the ACLU’s blog.