More than 40 civil liberties and good government groups sent a letter to Senate and House leadership urging the swift passage of the version of the USA FREEDOM Act re-introduced by Senator Leahy (D-Vt.) on Tuesday. Although the bill does not address all surveillance problems necessary for comprehensives reform, groups are heralding the bill as a good first step and ask Congress to pass it without any amendments or dilutions of its current protections.
Specifically, the bill would:
- Prohibit indiscriminate bulk collection of records under Section 215 and strengthen minimization requirements in instances where a Section 215 order is likely to return records on more than one individual;
- Strengthen transparency reporting provisions by improving the level of detail that private companies can include in their transparency reports and strongly enhances communications collection reporting by the government and
- Strengthen the accountability of FISA Court (FISC) by creating a Special Advocates to watchdog and advocate for privacy and civil liberties in hearings.
Download the Letter [PDF]
records under Section 215 and help
curtail other forms of broad