Senate Passes NSA Fix

Posted by | June 2, 2015 19:00 | Filed under: Politics Top Stories

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The Senate wasn’t going to let us go without the Patriot Act for long.

The vote was 67 to 32.

The bill, which passed the House nearly three weeks ago, now heads to President Barack Obama, who has pledged to sign the bill.

His signature will ultimately end the government’s indiscriminate collection of millions of Americans’ phone metadata, requiring the government obtain a targeted warrant to access the data instead.

“It’s historical. It’s the first major overhaul of government surveillance in decades,” said Sen. Patrick Leahy, the top Democratic sponsor of the reform measure called the USA Freedom Act.

The vote came two days after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell begrudgingly moved to vote on the compromise bill after pressure from House Republicans, the Obama administration and staunch reform advocates in the Senate, like Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who helped force the expiration of the Patriot Act provisions late Sunday.

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Copyright 2015 Liberaland
By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.

9 responses to Senate Passes NSA Fix

  1. Obewon June 2nd, 2015 at 20:27

    Grifter Rand Paul’s 36 hour stunt put all 320 million Americans at risk for another dumb photo-op. Preying for teabags to drop a nickel into his pants, Clown Paul like his dad will try to collect $50 M every four years, but won’t likely ever make a POTUS ballot.

    • illinoisboy1977 June 3rd, 2015 at 10:03

      How, exactly, does making the NSA abide by the Constitution put anyone at risk? Especially, since the FBI has admitted that NO terrorist threats have bee neutralized, by using powers contained in the Patriot Act?

      • Obewon June 3rd, 2015 at 20:30

        It’s amazing how uninformed you remain, despite having been repeatedly ‘informed’ here on LL. “Meet Executive Order 12333: The Reagan rule that lets the NSA spy on Americans”-Pulitzer Prize Winner Wa Po…” http://disq.us/8nitpn

  2. illinoisboy1977 June 3rd, 2015 at 10:01

    The NSA should NEVER have been allowed to collect phone metadata, en masse. The phone companies should never have cooperated with those requests. Any government agency who wants to see your records SHOULD have to get a warrant, first, as that’s what the Constitution says. Now, they’ll actually have to work for a living, just like the rest of us.

    • Obewon June 3rd, 2015 at 20:28

      “Meet Executive Order 12333: The Reagan rule that lets the NSA spy on Americans”-Pulitzer Prize Winner Wa Po proves why Lincoln’s telegraph tapping is and was legal.

      ‘Cloud Metadata’ was legally collected by NSA until dumbazzes now forced the the NSA to “Buy” your freely COLLECTED & saold metadata from Face Book, Google, Yahoo, et al http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/meet-executive-order-12333-the-reagan-rule-that-lets-the-nsa-spy-on-americans/2014/07/18/93d2ac22-0b93-11e4-b8e5-d0de80767fc2_story.html

      • illinoisboy1977 June 4th, 2015 at 13:22

        Executive Order 12333 placed foreign intelligence restrictions on what data could be collected and retained. Reagan didn’t order a wholesale collection of ALL metadata, for ALL U.S. citizens. The Patriot Act was indiscriminate, in its scope and had no restrictions on what could be collected or retained. It went WAY beyond EO12333. It was a blatant attack against the privacy rights of ordinary Americans.

        • Obewon June 4th, 2015 at 18:40

          Did GWB / Cheney have any successes? Of course not. “Bush on Jobs: Worst track record on record”-WSJ 1/09/2009. 2nd worst is GHWB Sr’s 2.5 M four year total.

          Now let’s see if you can read and comprehend? EO12333 Executive Order 12333–United States intelligence activities http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/codification/executive-order/12333.html “WAY beyond”-Dumbazz busted again!

          Source: The provisions of Executive Order 12333 of Dec. 4, 1981, appear at 46 FR 59941, 3 CFR, 1981 Comp., p. 200, unless otherwise noted.

          Table of Contents

          Preamble

          Part 1.Goals, Direction, Duties, and Responsibilities With Respect to the National Intelligence Effort1.1 Goals1.2 The National Security Council1.3 National Foreign Intelligence Advisory Groups1.4 The Intelligence Community1.5 Director of Central Intelligence1.6 Duties and Responsibilities of the Heads of Executive Branch Departments and Agencies1.7 Senior Officials of the Intelligence Community1.8 The Central Intelligence Agency1.9 The Department of State1.10 The Department of the Treasury1.11 The Department of Defense1.12 Intelligence Components Utilized by the Secretary of Defense1.13 The Department of Energy1.14 The Federal Bureau of Investigation
          Part 2.Conduct of Intelligence Activities2.1 Need2.2 Purpose2.3 Collection of Information2.4 Collection Techniques2.5 Attorney General Approval2.6 Assistance to Law Enforcement Authorities2.7 Contracting2.8 Consistency With Other Laws2.9 Undisclosed Participation in Organizations Within the United States2.10 Human Experimentation2.11 Prohibition on Assassination2.12 Indirect Participation
          Part 3.General Provisions3.1 Congressional Oversight3.2 Implementation3.3 Procedures3.4 Definitions 3.5 Purpose and Effect 3.6 Revocation

          Timely and accurate information about the activities, capabilities, plans, and intentions of foreign powers, organizations, and persons and their agents, is essential to the national security of the United States. All reasonable and lawful means must be used to ensure that the United States will receive the best intelligence available. For that purpose, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and statutes of the United States of America, including the National Security Act of 1947, as amended, and as President of the United States of America, in order to provide for the effective conduct of United States intelligence activities and the protection of constitutional rights, it is hereby ordered as follows:

          Part 1

          Goals, Direction, Duties and Responsibilities With Respect to the National Intelligence Effort…

  3. Obewon June 3rd, 2015 at 20:33

    The history of electronic surveillance, from Abraham Lincoln’s wiretaps to Operation Shamrock. http://www.pri.org/stories/2013-11-07/history-electronic-surveillance-abraham-lincolns-wiretaps-operation-shamrock
    NYT http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/06/opinion/lincolns-surveillance-state.html

  4. GreatLakeSailor June 4th, 2015 at 00:35

    Senate Passes NSA Fix Milquetoast Pushback.

    Since Senator Baldwin voted for the CitiBank ReIndemnification Amendment, I don’t think none too much of her, but this one she got right.

    senator-tammy-baldwin-statement-on-usa-freedom-act
    http://www.baldwin.senate.gov/press-releases/senator-tammy-baldwin-statement-on-usa-freedom-act

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