The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports the following:
Big news. The Senate is planning to vote on NSA surveillance reform this week. If the USA FREEDOM Act (S. 2685) passes, it will be the first law to limit the NSA’s spying power in almost thirty years.
We’re asking friends of EFF to call their Senators today and urge them to pass the strongest bill possible. Not in the United States? Sign our petition against mass surveillance instead.
The new Senate version of the USA FREEDOM Act would:
- Rein in the NSA’s illegal collection of millions of Americans’ telephone records by amending one of the worst provisions of the Patriot Act, Section 215.
- Create a special advocate whom the secret surveillance court can appoint to argue for civil liberties and privacy in proceedings that raise novel or significant legal issues.
- Provide new reporting requirements about surveillance, so that the NSA is forced to tell us how many people are actually being surveilled under its programs, including the program that allows the NSA to see the contents of Americans’ communications without a warrant.
Hundreds of thousands of people from across the political spectrum have called on Congress to stop mass spying by the NSA. Next week, it all comes to a head. But it won’t be smooth sailing: we expect NSA apologists to try to weaken the bill with last-minute amendments. That’s why we need people who care about privacy to call their senators and demand real reform. Make the call.
The USA FREEDOM Act isn’t everything we want in surveillance reform. Real reform means ending mass Internet surveillance of people in the US and abroad. It also means overhauling the broken classification system, which has hidden from public oversight government surveillance practices that affect us all. The USA FREEDOM Act isn’t a solution to all these problems, but it is a strong step on the path to reform. It will put in place measures that can help rein in NSA spying today and prove to Congress that there is a powerful movement of people working to end mass surveillance.
The vote is this week.1 Let’s make our voices heard in Congress.
Thank you,
Rainey Reitman
EFF Activism Director
Support our work.
1 The Senate will be taking up this issue in two votes, both scheduled for this week. The first is a “cloture vote,” basically a vote on whether the Senate will consider the USA FREEDOM Act at all. It takes 60 votes to pass cloture, and we expect that vote to happen Tuesday. The second vote, which may come Wednesday or Thursday, will be the actual vote on the USA FREEDOM Act. There may be amendments to the bill before the vote, so we’ll be watching closely to see what happens.
Waiting till a lame-duck session to bring up the bill, means it’s a bill that Harry Reid does not want passed, just like the Keystone Pipeline. Why was he holding it up before, and why is he bringing it up now?
Harry Reid is still in charge of this lame duck congress.
As usual…………………
Yes, we know.
If this bill passes cloture then clearly, Harry Reid will allow it for debate. (He’s the current Senate puppet master in case you forgot.)
But I do share the pessimism. Democrat Harry Reid has blocked more legislation than an NFL linebacker! And if you want to know why Congress is so dysfunctional you only need to look at the ONE asshole in charge of all the “bill mandering” (a sort of like, gerrymandering) — Horrible Harry!
… We’ll just see who injects the much anticipated “pork” and any other “riders” into the bill. But personally, I expect the cure (this bill) to morph into something that’s worse than the disease (the NSA snooping).
Other than repealing Obamacare…what legislation has been passed by the House?
Make the list as long as you can?
You really need to consider new sources of news.
If it passes cloture, then you have ended debate.
The bill also reauthorized the Patriot Act in full. You support that, right Perkel?
How about an amendment to defund the providing of work permits and green cards to illegal immigrants?
How would Perkel vote?
Obama’s plans for giving amnesty to illegal immigrants are outrageous, unprecedented! Uh, unless you count Republican presidents Reagan and Bush Sr. who did the same thing.
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/1f5e041c11294c318d11779be7d22119/reagan-bush-also-acted-alone-shield-immigrants
Are Reagan and Bush Sr now commie liberal RINOs? 😀
Oh my, looking for all sorts of excuses. Notice that Congress passed along with Reagan. And then followed up within a few years with changes from the initial bill. Here we have wholesale rejections of a new amnesty over many years, and the President decides he will ignore the law, and throw in some goodies for business interests, like expanding H1B and L1 visas for tech employees.
Wow, what an idiot phydeau is.
” Congress and Reagan enacted a sweeping overhaul” … ” Congress in October passed”.
Unlike the criminal Obama where “The move is certain to bring criticism that Obama has gone too far — ignoring the intent of Congress”
http://tinyurl.com/mroqvrt
phydeau is probably too stupid to know the difference.
Why do wingnuts always do this?
wingnut: Democrat X is a terrible horrible person for supporting policy Y!
me: uh, Republican Z supported the same policy Y, and you didn’t criticize *him*
wingnut: But the Democrats didn’t stop Republican Z so they’re just as bad!
me: No shit sherlock! That’s exactly my point, you friggin’ idiot! They BOTH do it. So stop blaming Democrats for doing the same thing Republicans do!
But this is probably too complicated for wingnut brains to understand. 🙁
So you won’t be saying anything like that if a Republican president just announced he is not going to enforce ObamaCare?
Gee Whiz NFS. That is Pedro Stupid.
Providing a benefit is NOT THE SAME THING as prioritizing the enforcement of criminal law.
It doesn’t even rise to the level of math or logic……more like common sense or honesty?
Know what I mean?
You’re the one who’s being stupid, as usual. For example:
I’m not going to enforce the individual mandate, or the employer mandate. Or the restrictions on the benefits that must be provided by insurance providers.
Just prosecutorial discretion.
And Obama is providing work permits, which is not prosecutorial discretion.
HAR!!
Notice how I nailed it with “phydeau is probably too stupid to know the difference.”!!
What an idiot. Doesn’t comprehend the difference between working with congress and dictating in spite of congress.
Idiot phydeau must be a product of the chicago public school system.
AY, there has never been any working with this Republican Congress. In your little fox bubble maybe you missed the R’s clearly stating in 2008 that their sole goal was to make Obama’s tenure a failure (taking America down in the process — why do you hate America so much?). Maybe you missed the record number of filibusters by the Republican senators.
Blaming Obama for not “working with” this Congress is so stupid that words fail me. Monumentally stupid. Congenitally, irrevocably stupid. So stupid it hurts to even see it.
Aw pedrito, a semi-coherent thought! Good for you! Why don’t you google “congressional productivity” and see how little Congress has gotten done in the sessions since Obama was elected. With the Republicans controlling the House, we got lots of useless votes against Obamacare but very little actual governing done (you know, bills passed by both chambers, signed into law). The R’s basically admit it, with this article in the National Review about the “governing trap” that warns the Republicans not to do any actual governing:
http://nationalreview.com/article/392082/governing-trap-editors
Back to your old incoherent ways. It was nice to see a small flash of brain activity, though.
Anyone else? AY? Bueller? Anyone care to explain how the president can work with a Congress that has publicly dedicated itself to stopping EVERYTHING he does?
Pedrito! Very impressive! Showing reading comprehension and everything!
However, your point (such as it is) is irrelevant. No one disputes that the Democrats have voted against Obama on many occasions.
My point, which you show no signs of comprehending, is that the Republican-controlled House and the Republicans in the Senate declared from day one that they would oppose any and all Obama initiatives, and obstruct him in all ways possible. Thus the HUGE number of Republican filibusters on every issue big and small in the Senate, and the House’s least productive sessions in many years.
The Republicans don’t care about doing the business of the country, they just care about hurting Obama, even if it hurts the country too. And to their credit, it’s been a winning strategy! Low-information voters don’t know or care that it’s been Republicans gumming up the works.
There is no record filibusters. This record comes because Harry Reid has been filing for cloture even before debate is started. So eve noncontroversial measures are listed as a filibuster. Reid has also destroyed the Senate tradition of any Senator being able to offer amendments.
NFS, you’re entitled to your own opinions but you’re not entitled to your own (Fox News) facts. Talking about this with you is like trying to talk about astronomy with someone who insists the sun rises in the west.
Not possible to engage with people who are disengaged from reality. Oh well.
And the ‘block everything Obama does’, was in reality McConnell saying he didn’t want to create the perception of bipartisanship with one or two Republican votes in support. The reality was McConnell gave Obama what he wanted on the debt ceiling, with Gruber-style deception.
As I suspected, the article gets it wrong. How Bush Sr administration comes up with a number of 1.5 million affected is beyond me. There are an estimated 12 million total illegals today, so a much much smaller number then, and only a small portion would be affected. Indeed, after Congress expanded the program, the correct number was 140,000. So they were off by at least a factor of 10, which makes a huge difference.
In addition, at that time, they enacted TPS status, to prevent future amnesties by the executive.
Reagan’s law did not give out work permits, SSN, green cards or anything else, but announced they would look the other way in certain cases, a more legitimate prosecutorial discretion. Note that the article has changed with regards to this detail.
Perhaps the better comparison is with Obama’s rewrites of ObamaCare.
With respect to the notion that I can just suspend deportations through executive order, that’s just not the case. Because there are laws on the books that Congress has passed. And I know that everybody here at Bell is studying hard so you know that we’ve got three branches of government. Congress passes the law. The executive branch’s job is to enforce and implement those laws. And then the judiciary has to interpret the laws.
There are enough laws on the books by Congress that are very clear in terms of how we have to enforce our immigration system that for me to simply, through executive order, to ignore those congressional mandates would not conform with my appropriate role as president. That does not mean, though, that we can’t make decisions, for example, to emphasize enforcement on those who’ve engaged in criminal activity. It also doesn’t mean that we can’t strongly advocate and propose legislation that would change the law in order to make it more fair, more just, and ultimately would help young people who are here trying to do the right thing and whose talents we want to embrace in order to succeed as a country.
He even acknowledges that smart people would know that what he is doing is illegal.
I’d vote for you to pick your own vegetables from the fields,
Oh my, another of the ‘jobs Americans won’t do’ crowd.
And I’m guessing you simultaneously support unions and increasing the minimum wage, while opposing a measure that would force employers to increase the wages pay because no one is available to work at the lower wage.
Call my senator? Dianne Feinstein? Really? Talk about a waste of time, effort and electrons.
Haven’t we been told by the likes of EFF and Marc Perkel that bills like the PATRIOT Act are misnamed deceptions? Why now all this cheerleading for the USA FREEDOM Act?
Notice the ” There may be amendments to the bill before the vote” part?
Of course there will be amendments, a trojan horse bill which won’t change anything on the ground while introducing other losses to our freedom.
Not to mention trying to make points before he signs his Amnesty executive order.
First, they’re rushing this “reform” thru the Senate, before the new Republican majority gets into office. As if they’d actually do anything different from the Democrat majority. But it’s good theater, eh?
Second, I have no doubt some reform will occur. Congressmen and Senators will make sure that they and theirs will not be spied upon. And forget about the rest of us, slaves.
Breathtaking in its obtuseness, Ah_Yea says:
11/18/2014 at 12:05 pm
HAR!!
Notice how I nailed it with “phydeau is probably too stupid to know the difference.”!! /// ….and you point out the obvious because?
What an idiot. Doesn’t comprehend the difference between working with congress and dictating in spite of congress. /// Define “working with” a congress that is dedicated only to keeping their own power which for 6 years as been to be resolutely against whatever Republican Programs Obamsa supports, and whatever any Billionaire wants?
Idiot phydeau must be a product of the chicago public school system. /// Based on what metric?
Some few years ago, Oh No was a 50/50 kind of guy. On the border of many issues with a tilt to conservatism/republican support. He’s developed into a full bore idiot teapublican wingnut though.
REGARD: USA has 20 million illegal immigrants since RayGun passed anesty for some 4 or 6 million. Neither party has enforce the border, neither part has enforce immigration laws.
All Obama has done “in fact” is state what has been done for the last 20 years.
I know……….telling the truth. Its worse than kryptonite to the idiot party.
So the Senate isn’t really voting on it. They are voting to stop debate. Now how about they actually debate it.
Gee, I wonder why Obama can’t issue an Executive Order to direct the NSA to stop spying ? The NSA is part of the Executive and Obama is the Chief Executive !!! Why do we need any law on this question ?