The modified USA Freedom Act, HR-3361, lost support...

Tuesday (CD May 21 p12), inspiring immediate dissent. It cleared the Judiciary and Intelligence committees in recent weeks in a different form. The act was “designed to prohibit bulk collection, but has been made so weak that it fails to adequately protect against mass, untargeted collection of Americans’ private information,” said Center for Democracy & Technology President Nuala O'Connor, withdrawing her group’s backing. “The bill now offers only mild reform and goes against the overwhelming support for definitively ending bulk collection.” New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute also withdrew support. “Although we are still hopeful that the bill’s language will end the bulk collection of telephone records and prevent indiscriminate collection of other types of records, it may still allow data collection on a dangerously massive scale,” said OTI Policy Counsel Robyn Greene. The Electronic Frontier Foundation “cannot support a bill that doesn’t achieve the goal of ending mass spying,” it said. Access, the group promoting what it calls global digital freedom, also dropped support. “Today’s version would allow broad collection to continue under the guise of reform,” said Jennifer Granick, director of civil liberties at the Stanford Center for Internet and Society, in a blog post (http://bit.ly/1tkFOGU). The Senate will have to “make extensive improvements” to what is a “limited” version now, said the American Civil Liberties Union. Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., appeared before the Rules Committee Tuesday night speaking in favor of the new bill, also citing a statement of support from ranking member John Conyers, D-Mich. “This does end all government bulk collection of data, and not just the telephone data that’s been the subject of the public discussion here but any others than the government might do or wish to do in the future,” Goodlatte told Rules. President Barack Obama’s administration “strongly supports” swift House and subsequently Senate passage of the bill, the Office of Management and Budget said Wednesday (http://1.usa.gov/RUXdIm). The legislation “heeds the President’s call” on surveillance overhaul and strikes an appropriate balance, OMB said. Its “significant reforms would provide the public greater confidence in our programs and the checks and balances in the system,” OMB said. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., sponsor of the original Senate companion to the act, said during an oversight hearing of the FBI Wednesday that he is “concerned” about the changes to the House version.