MOSCOW, May 8 (RIA Novosti) – The US House Judiciary Committee has unanimously approved a bill banning security services from conducting mass surveillance on American citizens.
The bill aims to protect “Americans’ privacy while preserving our ability to protect America’s national security,” a press statement on the committee’s website said. It also aims “to reform our nation’s intelligence-gathering programs operated under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), including ending the bulk collection of data.”
All 32 members of the House Judiciary Committee voted in favor of the legislation reining in the NSA with the USA Freedom Act, almost a year after Edward Snowden disclosed the NSA’s massive surveillance program.
The bill is not only to protect Americans’ privacy “by prohibiting bulk collection,” but also sets new mechanism for obtaining call records.
“To ensure national security officials have the needed information to keep Americans safe while enhancing Americans’ confidence in the manner in which this information is collected and held, the bill creates a new process for the collection of call detail records,” the bill says.
“The government would be required to seek approval from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) of specific selection terms on a case-by-case basis. The FISC is authorized to allow up to two ‘hops.’ The government may renew these orders every 180 days,” according to the bill.
The legislation also stipulates the government should be restricted “from using unlawfully obtained information about Americans acquired outside the scope of court-approved targeting and minimization procedures,” as well as ensuring robust oversight of intelligence-gathering programs.
The USA Freedom Act was introduced in the House and Senate last October. The revised version was submitted by the bill’s sponsor Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner Monday.
Last July, the Committee held a public hearing to examine the statutory authorities that govern certain surveillance programs operated under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). This February, the Committee held a comprehensive hearing to examine the various recommendations to reform or end these programs made by President Obama, the President’s Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies, and the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board.
