The Senate on Tuesday passed the bipartisan USA FREEDOM Act of 2015, an historic bill coauthored by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) and Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) to rein in surveillance authorities for the first time since passage of the USA PATRIOT Act. As chairman of the Judiciary Committee last Congress, Leahy convened six high-profile hearings on surveillance authorities. The Senate’s Tuesday passage of his bipartisan and bicameral measure comes after two years of work and close consultation with partners in the House. In a rare break from his colleague, Vermont's other US senator and presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders, voted against the measure, saying that while the bill was better than the PATRIOT Act, but still allowed too much infiltration into the lives of ordinary citizens.
Sanders votes ‘No’Citing privacy and civil liberties concerns, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) voted against legislation to extend a controversial domestic spying program. Sanders said the measure shifting the bulk collection and storage of phone records from the government to private telecommunications companies is better than a provision in the USA Patriot Act which it would replace. The bill, however, still would give the National Security Agency and law enforcement too much access to vast databases of information on millions of innocent Americans. “We must keep our country safe and protect ourselves from terrorists,” Sanders said, “but we can do that without undermining the constitutional and privacy rights which make us a free nation. This bill is an improvement over the USA Patriot Act but there are still too many opportunities for the government to collect information on innocent people.” Sanders said his concerns about the erosion of privacy rights extend beyond the government tracking phone records and Internet traffic of innocent Americans. “This is not just the government. It’s corporate America too,” he said. “Technology has significantly outpaced public policy. There is a huge amount of information being collected on our individual lives ranging from where we go to the books we buy and the magazines we read. We need to have a discussion about that.” Sanders plans to introduce legislation to establish a commission to study how modern technology impacts data collection and privacy. |
“The USA FREEDOM Act will enact the most significant reforms to government surveillance powers since the USA PATRIOT Act,” Leahy said. “These reforms would not have been achieved were it not for the sunsets that I and others fought for 14 years ago. Passage of the USA FREEDOM Act is an accomplishment made possible by meaningful congressional oversight. It is about living up to our responsibility to ensure the privacy rights of all Americans.”
Leahy added: “I am proud of the bipartisan and bicameral effort that led to this bill, and I particularly thank Senator Lee, Chairman Goodlatte, Ranking Member Conyers, and Chairman Sensenbrenner for their close partnership on this bill. I will continue to work to build on these reforms in the years to come.”
Leahy and Lee joined together in April to introduce the USA FREEDOM Act of 2015, along with cosponsors including Senators Dean Heller (R-Nev.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Al Franken (D-Minn.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), and Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). The bill, which overwhelmingly passed in the House last month, is also coauthored by Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers (D-Mich.), and Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.).
An outline of the USA FREEDOM Act of 2015 can be found here, and text of legislation can be found online.
WASHINGTON (Tuesday, June 2, 2015)