[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 77 (Tuesday, May 19, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3012-S3013]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
USA FREEDOM ACT
Mr. LEAHY. On another issue, in just 12 days, section 215 of the USA
PATRIOT Act, along with two other surveillance authorities, will
expire. And once again, the Senate Republican leadership is scrambling
at the last minute to avoid a crisis of its own making.
Last year, we had a chance to pass the USA FREEDOM Act of 2014, and I
urged the Senate to pass it. A majority of Senators, but not 60, voted
for it because we all knew the expiration date for these surveillance
authorities was right around the corner. We knew May 31 would arrive
quickly in the new Congress.
I did not want our intelligence community to face a period of
uncertainty leading up to the sunset, and I also didn't want the
American people to have billions of their phone records stocked away in
a government database any longer--especially as we have seen, in the
case of Edward Snowden, just how insecure that database can be.
That is why we spent months holding six public hearings in the
Judiciary Committee and even more months negotiating a bipartisan bill,
which got the support of the administration, the intelligence
community, privacy groups, and the technology industry. I think that is
the first time we have had all of them together.
Unfortunately, my attempts to avoid this last-minute chaos were
blocked by the Republican leader last year. He said this was a matter
that could wait for the new Congress. He said the new Republican
majority would have a rigorous committee process for important issues.
Well, five months into the new Republican majority, and with the
deadline looming, the Republican leader has just now turned his
attention to this issue.
The Republican-led Senate committees have not taken steps toward
reauthorization or reform. Instead, the majority leader now proposes a
60-day extension of a program that a Federal court of appeals just
ruled is unlawful. The court ruled unanimously that it is unlawful, and
they are saying, well, let's just extend the bulk collection program
for another 60 days.
The majority leader apparently wants to do this to allow one of his
committee chairmen to develop a last-minute ``back-up plan.'' This is
why we tried to pass legislation a year ago.
The House of Representatives is not going to pass a 60-day extension,
nor should it. We should not extend this illegal program for one more
day, and we do not need to do so. After all, we have a solution in
hand. Why try to ignore reality and go on with something else?
We have a responsible solution. In fact, it is the only responsible
solution. Broad consensus has developed around the bipartisan USA
FREEDOM Act of 2015.
The Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence wrote
a letter in support of the bill. The FBI Director told me he supports
it. This past weekend, the former chairman and ranking member of the
House Intelligence Committee advocated for passage of this legislation
in an article in the Baltimore Sun.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that these materials be
printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
[From the Baltimore Sun, May 15, 2015]
Intelligence Reform Bill Is Important to Safeguarding Our Security and
Privacy
(By C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger and Mike Rogers)
The USA Freedom Act will protect our security and privacy.
A recent Baltimore Sun editorial described legislation to
reform the government's collection of Americans' phone and
email data as a sign that ``bipartisan cooperation in
Congress is not completely dead'' (``Reining in the
surveillance state,'' May 5). We'd like to remind The Sun
that similar legislation to end the mass storage of this data
passed the House by an overwhelming bipartisan majority--it
garnered more than 300 votes, in fact--over a year ago.
In our role as leaders on the House Intelligence Committee,
we drafted and introduced last year's bill together with our
colleagues on the Judiciary Committee, Reps. Bob Goodlatte
and John Conyers. Our success provided the foundation for the
legislation that passed the House by an even larger margin on
Wednesday. The USA Freedom Act ends the bulk collection of
what we now know as ``metadata''--that big database up at the
National Security Agency that contains the phone numbers of
millions of Americans will go away. The government will now
have to seek court approval before petitioning private cell
phone companies for records. The court will have to approve
each application, except in emergencies, and major court
decisions will be made public.
We need this reform to keep our country safe. Section 215
of the Patriot Act, which is the part that legalizes much of
NSA's critical work to protect us from terrorists, expires in
less than three weeks on June 1. If we do not reauthorize it
with the reforms demanded by the public, essential
capabilities to track legitimate terror suspects will expire,
too.
That couldn't happen at a worse time--we live in a
dangerous world. The threats posed by ISIS and other terror
groups are just the tip of the iceberg. We also need strong
defenses against increasingly aggressive cyber terrorists and
the ``lone wolf'' terrorists who are often American citizens,
for example.
This bill restores Americans' confidence that the
government is not snooping on its own citizens by improving
the necessary checks and balances essential to our Democracy.
We helped write it last year, we support it this year and we
hope Republicans and Democrats continue working together on
common sense reforms to protect our national security and our
civil liberties.
____
May 11, 2015.
Senator Patrick J. Leahy,
U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
Senator Mike S. Lee,
U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
Dear Senators Leahy and Lee: Thank you for your letter of
May 11, 2015, asking for the views of the Department of
Justice and the Intelligence Community on S. 1123, the USA
FREEDOM Act of 2015. We support this legislation.
This bill is the result of extensive discussion among the
Congress, the Administration, privacy and civil liberties
advocates, and industry representatives. We believe that it
is a reasonable compromise that preserves vital national
security authorities, enhances privacy and civil liberties
and codifies requirements for increased transparency. The
Intelligence Community believes that the bill preserves the
essential operational capabilities of the telephone metadata
program and enhances other intelligence capabilities needed
to protect our nation and its partners. In the absence of
legislation, important intelligence authorities will expire
on June 1. This legislation would extend these authorities,
as amended, until the end of 2019, providing our intelligence
professionals the certainty they need to continue the
critical work they undertake every day to protect the
American people.
The USA FREEDOM Act bans bulk collection under Section 215
of the USA PATRIOT Act, FISA pen registers, and National
Security Letters, while providing a new mechanism to obtain
telephone metadata records to help identify potential
contacts of suspected terrorists inside the United States.
The Intelligence Community believes, based on the existing
practices of communications providers in retaining metadata,
that these provisions will retain the essential operational
capabilities of the existing bulk telephone metadata program
while eliminating bulk collection by the government.
[[Page S3013]]
The bill also codifies requirements for additional
transparency by mandating certain public reporting by the
government, authorizing additional reporting by providers,
and establishing a statutory mechanism for declassification
and release of FISA Court opinions consistent with national
security. It establishes a process for appointment of an
amicus curiae to assist the FISA Court and FISA Court of
Review in appropriate matters. It provides reforms to
national security letters, requiring review of the need for
their secrecy. The bill also closes potential gaps in
collection authorities and increases the maximum criminal
penalty for materially supporting a foreign terrorist
organization.
Overall, the significant reforms contained in this
legislation will provide the public greater confidence in how
our intelligence activities are carried out and in the
oversight of those activities, while ensuring vital national
security authorities remain in place. You have our commitment
that we will notify Congress if we find that provisions of
this law significantly impair the Intelligence Community's
ability to protect national security. We urge the Congress to
pass this bill promptly.
Sincerely,
Loretta E. Lynch,
Attorney General.
James R. Clapper,
Director of National Intelligence.
Mr. LEAHY. But even more importantly, last week the House of
Representatives passed the USA FREEDOM Act of 2015 with an overwhelming
vote of 338 to 88. At a time when the public says Congress is locked in
partisan gridlock, look at this overwhelming vote of Republicans and
Democrats for the USA FREEDOM Act. Well, the Senate ought to do the
same thing the House did.
We can keep our country safe without a government database of
billions of Americans' phone records. I think about Richard Clarke, who
is a former counterterrorism official. He spent six months examining
this program as a member of the President's Review Group. He concluded
the program has ``no benefit.'' We do not need it, and, more
importantly, Americans do not want it.
I fear that if Congress does not end this bulk collection program, it
will only open the door to the next dragnet surveillance program. Next
time it will not just be phone records. It might be location
information or medical records or credit card records. That is why it
is so important to stop it now.
Some will say Congress doesn't need to act because the Second Circuit
has already ruled that this program is illegal. I have read the court's
decision, I agree with it, and I hope this panel decision will
ultimately be upheld by the Supreme Court. But there are other pending
lawsuits and it could be months or even years before we know how the
courts will ultimately rule on this issue.
In addition, the USA FREEDOM Act doesn't just end bulk collection
under section 215 and the other national security authorities; it also
contains other important reforms that cannot be won through legal
challenges, such as new transparency measures and a panel of experts
from which the FISA Court can draw on for amicus support. So the courts
made it very clear Congress has to act.
Congress has spent years working on these issues, with numerous
hearings. The Senate last year came up with basically the same bill the
House has just overwhelmingly passed. We shouldn't be staying around
here talking about whether we are going to go over the brink. We are
going to put our intelligence community under pressure.
The USA FREEDOM Act is a responsible solution that can pass both
Chambers today, including with a majority vote for it in this body
today. Its enactment will ensure that these expiring provisions do not
sunset. I urge Senators to support it.
Let us not play politics with the security of this country. Let us
talk about what really can be done, what has been done in a
responsible, bipartisan way in the other body, and let us step up and
do the same in the Senate. That is what I would urge, not this
brinkmanship which will actually bring about the end of all of these
provisions. Maybe some would like that. I think we have a better
balance here with the USA FREEDOM Act.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum, and ask unanimous consent that the
time be equally divided between the two parties.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
____________________