House Republican leadership has taken an interest in...
House Republican leadership has taken an interest in moving forward with a National Security Agency surveillance proposal from the House Intelligence Committee. “There is significant member interest in this issue as well as multiple committees with jurisdiction,” a leadership aide…
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told us when asked about the House Intelligence proposal. “Leadership is working to ensure that there is a well-coordinated process with all interested parties going forward.” No details of the House NSA proposal have been disclosed, but Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., and ranking member Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., described elements of it during an open House Intelligence hearing this fall. At a Thursday closed markup session of HR-3381, the Intelligence Authorization Act for fiscal year 2014, Rogers said he wants to consider any NSA bill separately from the authorization act because House Intelligence shares jurisdiction over the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act with the House Judiciary Committee. “I remain committed to continuing to work with members to move a FISA bill forward, but I hope we will save any amendments to FISA that Members are interested in pursing for a later day,” Rogers said in his opening statement (http://1.usa.gov/1fnGbwb) which was released outside of the hearing. The intelligence authorization passed by voice vote and advances to the House floor. A spokeswoman for Ruppersberger told us by email: “Since we did not reach the point of mark-up” of the House Intelligence NSA bill Thursday during the closed session, “there was still much that was up in the air, but the bill and any potential amendments all sought to enhance transparency, accountability, and oversight of the [intelligence community] and its national security laws and programs.” The House Intelligence bill is widely expected to preserve the government’s phone metadata bulk collection, which an alternative proposal from House Judiciary Crime Subcommittee Chairman Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., would end. Sensenbrenner’s bill is called the USA Freedom Act, HR-3361, and now has 98 co-sponsors in the House, with two California members signing on Wednesday. “Leadership has not reached out to Congressman Sensenbrenner on NSA legislation,” a spokesman for Sensenbrenner told us Thursday. Several companies and nonprofits submitted a joint letter to House and Senate leaders Thursday urging support for Sensenbrenner’s bill and slamming alternatives that do not go as far. “We oppose legislation that codifies sweeping bulk collection activities,” the letter said (http://bit.ly/1aTXqgE). It was signed by many groups, including the Center for Democracy & Technology, Public Knowledge, the Computer and Communications Industry Association, the American Civil Liberties Union, Free Press, TechFreedom, Mozilla, NetChoice, Tumblr and Reddit.