Bipartisan Senate Duo Pressures Obama for Real Surveillance Reform

Republicans and Democrats can’t agree on
much, but two of them just came together to pressure
President Barack Obama to support greater transparency in
surveillance reform, goading him to do so both “formally and
publicly.”

Sens. Al Franken (D-Minn.), who is the chair of the Subcommittee
on Privacy, Technology, and the Law, and Dean Heller (R-Nev.)
yesterday published a letter to the president explaining, “We fear
that unless stronger transparency provisions are included in the
USA Freedom Act, the American public will have no way to know if
the government is following through on… end[ing] bulk collection of
Americans’ phone call records, along with prohibiting bulk
collection under several other authorities.” A watered-down version
of the bill passed somewhat controversially through the House in
May. The duo suggests three ingredients they think are
necessary for “any … surveillance reform bill” to be
meaningful:

• Provisions requiring the American government to release annual
  estimates of the number of individuals and Americans that have had
  their information collected, and ideally also how many Americans
  have had their information reviewed; 
• Provisions allowing companies to disclose more information
  about government requests for their customers’ information in a
  more timely manner than provided for in the House bill;
  and 
• Avoiding any reporting requirement or disclosure provision
  allowing disclosure only in terms of “targets” instead of total
  individuals affected.

Shortly before the House voted on their version of
it, the bill was defanged to the dismay of a bipartisan coalition
of lawmakers and advocates. Despite
being a co-sponsor, Rep. Justin Amash voted against it,
decrying that the changed “bill maintains and codifies a
large-scale, unconstitutional domestic spying program. It claims to
end ‘bulk collection’ of Americans’ data only in a very technical
sense.”

Ostensibly, the president supports the
end of bulk collection, but David Kravets of Ars
Technica
suggested at the time of the House vote that “the Obama
administration pressured the Republican leadership to water it
down.” The Hill‘s Kate Tummarrello
laid blame equally on the GOP and the president.

Franken and Heller are turning up the heat on Obama in
anticipation of the Freedom Act’s consideration by the Senate,
which they say will happen “soon.”

In a separate release this week, Franken expressed support
for the current Senate version of the bill, but warned that he will
vote against it if changes are made that “undercut transparency, or
that undercuts any of the other oversight and accountability
provisions that are necessary for a successful surveillance reform
effort.”