The House Intelligence Committee advanced the recently revised...
The House Intelligence Committee advanced the recently revised USA Freedom Act unanimously by voice vote, it said in a news release Thursday. That legislation would end the government’s bulk collection of metadata and make several changes to surveillance practice. Intelligence…
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met in closed session Thursday to consider both the USA Freedom Act, HR-3361, and House Intelligence lawmakers’ own Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Transparency and Modernization Act (HR-4291). The House Judiciary Committee cleared the USA Freedom Act Wednesday (CD May 8 p9). The bill advances to the House floor. Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., and ranking member Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., plan on “working with the Judiciary Committee, House and Senate leadership, and the White House to address outstanding operational concerns and enact the USA Freedom Act into law this year,” they said in a joint statement. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., author of companion legislation in the Senate, praised the bill in a statement following its House Judiciary clearance Wednesday. But “I remain concerned that the legislation approved today does not include some of the important reforms related to national security letters, a strong special advocate at the FISA Court, and greater transparency,” Leahy said, saying Senate Judiciary will consider the bill this summer. In separate statements, Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Mark Udall, D-Colo., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., lamented that the revised USA Freedom Act is narrower than some proposals have been but largely praised its clearance as a key step forward in ending bulk collection, as they have backed.