Meaningful Debate on Section 215 Surveillance Reauthorization Needed in Congress, Conservatives Say
Conservative privacy advocates urged Congress not to automatically reauthorize the controversial USA Patriot Act Section 215, telling congressional aides during an R Street Institute event Wednesday to urge their bosses to conduct a thorough debate on the provision that authorized controversial NSA bulk collection of phone metadata. The phone metadata collection program was one of the major NSA surveillance initiatives disclosed through former NSA contractor Edward Snowden's leaks to the media beginning in June 2013. Without reauthorization, Section 215 and other key provisions of the Patriot Act are to sunset June 1, with May 21 widely seen as the last working day Congress can act on reauthorization, given the Memorial Day recess. The debate over Section 215 reauthorization is set to reignite when Congress returns from recess next week, while other legislators are pushing for more wholesale NSA surveillance reforms.
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Congress now has a chance to enact “meaningful” NSA reforms and legislators shouldn't squander that chance, R Street Institute Innovation Policy Director Mike Godwin said. “We will do our country a disservice if we just reauthorize” Section 215 without considering the impacts of the provision, he said. Reining in Section 215 may reignite discussion of larger surveillance changes that are sorely needed in federal agencies that have become “addicted” to surveillance, Godwin said. “It's like an addiction to crack,” he said. The NSA and others “can't make themselves stop using it.” Surveillance overhaul advocates made several attempts to enact legislation in the 113th Congress, including a version of the USA Freedom Act (HR-3361) that passed the House. The Senate's version of the bill (S-2685) was killed by a filibuster.
Conservative activists and lawmakers have been divided on how to address Section 215 and NSA surveillance, with the debate often showing the clash between traditional conservative tenets on limitations to government power and the need for security, Godwin said. The push for conservatives to re-examine Section 215 comes as progressive groups escalate their own push for NSA changes. The Fight215.org privacy advocate coalition, which includes the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Democracy and Technology and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said Wednesday it's forming to push for outright repeal of Section 215. R Street and several of the Fight215.org coalition are also members of the Reform Government Surveillance coalition, which urged President Barack Obama, House and Senate leaders and intelligence officials last month to end using the NSA metadata collection program (see 1503250027).
Godwin and other conservative advocates framed their push for surveillance overhaul Wednesday in terms of surveillance's impact on gun rights, U.S. economic power and the size of the federal government. Snowden's revelations about NSA surveillance have begun to hurt U.S. economic interests, particularly its tech companies, Golden Frog President Sunday Yokubaitis said. Foreign companies have turned against products marketed by companies like Cisco because of concerns that software and other technology may have backdoors that allow for government surveillance, he said. “What's been a huge advantage for us has become a liability,” Yokubaitis said. Golden Frog chose to incorporate in Switzerland rather than the U.S. to assure potential customers that its products would be effectively encrypted, he said. Cato Institute Policy Analyst Patrick Eddington said surveillance changes could roll back perceived federal government encroachment against conservative causes, referencing past IRS scrutiny of conservative and tea party political groups.
Members of Congress should push House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and other House and Senate leaders to have a “real debate” on Section 215 when Congress returns from recess, or the leadership will wait until shortly before the de facto May 21 reauthorization deadline to bring the issue to a vote, Eddington said. At that point reauthorization proponents will put pressure on members to pass a bill “or people are going to die,” he said. More broadly arching surveillance overhaul bills are also set to get attention when Congress reconvenes, with FreedomWorks Chief Economist Wayne Brough identifying the Surveillance State Repeal Act (HR-1466) as the bill with the most effective changes. The bill, introduced last month by Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., would prohibit the federal government from requiring electronics and software manufacturers to include backdoors. A ban on federal government mandates for backdoors in U.S. technology is one of the key provisions needed in effective surveillance reform, Eddington said. HR-1466 also has the “strongest” whistleblower protections seen thus far in surveillance reform legislation, he said.