Two congressmen have introduced some of the strongest anti-spying reform measures to ever hit Capitol Hill in an attempt to end government spying on American citizens.
Reps. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., and Thomas Massie, R-Ky., introduced the Surveillance State Repeal Act to the House on Tuesday, which would completely overturn the Patriot Act that passed in the wake of Sept. 11 and allows the government to conduct mass surveillance under the guise of preventing terrorism.
The law would also completely repeal the 2008 FISA Amendments Act, another spying law that allows the NSA to conduct widespread Internet spying and force tech companies to compromise encryption and install backdoors into devices to facilitate government spying. The FISA court, which secretly approves surveillance requests by intelligence agencies, would now have to prove probable cause before issuing warrants for surveillance, whereas the court currently only requires reasonable suspicion. The court would also be assigned technology experts to advise judges on the how the surveillance could affect Americans' privacy and constitutional rights.
“The warrantless collection of millions of personal communications from innocent Americans is a direct violation of our constitutional right to privacy,” Pocan said in a press release. “Revelations about the NSA's programs reveal the extraordinary extent to which the program has invaded Americans' privacy. I reject the notion that we must sacrifice liberty for security -- we can live in a secure nation which also upholds a strong commitment to civil liberties. This legislation ends the NSA's dragnet surveillance practices, while putting provisions in place to protect the privacy of American citizens through real and lasting change."
The bill would also afford more protection to whistleblowers like Edward Snowden, who disclosed a number of government spying programs and had to seek temporary asylum in Russia due to concerns that a fair trial would not be provided in the U.S.
“Really, what we need are new whistleblower protections so that the next Edward Snowden doesn’t have to go to Russia or Hong Kong or whatever the case may be just for disclosing this,” Massie said, according to The Hill.
But as The Hill noted, the bill is likely to face significant resistance in Congress, being that a number of milder anti-spying bills in recent years haven't been able to gain enough support to pass.
The portion of the Patriot Act that gives the NSA authority to bulk collect phone data is set to expire on June 1, so spy advocates are hoping to reauthorize before then, while reformers believe the deadline could be their best shot at overhauling the most controversial aspects of the law.
On Wednesday, a coalition of tech companies sent a letter to the Obama administration and senior lawmakers vowing to oppose any legislation that doesn't ban the bulk collection of Americans' phone records, reported The Washington Post. The group includes Google, Apple, Microsoft, Twitter and Facebook.
“We know that there are some in Congress who think that they can get away with reauthorizing the expiring provisions of the Patriot Act without any reforms at all,” said Kevin Bankston, policy director of New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute, a privacy group that organized the effort, the Post reported. “This letter draws a line in the sand that makes clear that the privacy community and the Internet industry do not intend to let that happen without a fight.”
