Ahead of Senate Vote, USA Freedom Act Called 'Major Step' Toward Surveillance Reform

As the U.S. Senate readies for a vote on legislation designed to constrain some of the troubling aspects of domestic surveillance and the national security state, both advocacy groups and private industry are weighing in on the measure.

A coalition of big-name technology and Internet companies—including Facebook, Apple, Twitter, and Dropbox—is lobbying Congress to pass the USA Freedom Act and thereby curb U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance powers and enact more transparency on government data requests.

“The Senate has an opportunity this week to vote on the bipartisan USA Freedom Act,” reads an open letter to the U.S. Senate, released by the 10 tech corporations that comprise the Reform Government Surveillance coalition. “We urge you to pass the bill, ‪which both protects national security and reaffirms America’s commitment to the freedoms we all cherish.”

The Senate will vote Tuesday on whether to move forward and debate the bill, which was introduced in its current version by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) this July. Sixty votes are required for the legislation to advance. After obtaining the 60 votes, the Senate will then debate the bill and any amendments, and hold another vote on Wednesday or Thursday on the final text.

The bill, a revised version crafted by Leahy in negotiation with the Obama administration, other legislators, and the intelligence community, would ban the bulk collection of Americans’ telephone records and Internet metadata; expand government and corporate reporting to the public; and require the controversial Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Court, in consultation with the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, “to appoint a panel of special advocates who are to advance legal positions in support of individual privacy and civil liberties.”

It is seen as an improvement from the watered-down House version that passed in May.

According to Mark Jaycox, a policy analyst for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), though the Senate bill may “may have some problems,” it is still “a major step forward for surveillance reform.”

EFF is urging its supporters to contact their senators and encourage them to pass the bill “without any amendments that will weaken it.”

In its open letter, the Reform Government Surveillance coalition notes that “the version that just passed the House of Representatives could permit bulk collection of Internet ‘metadata’ (e.g. who you email and who emails you), something that the Administration and Congress said they intended to end. Moreover, while the House bill permits some transparency, it is critical to our customers that the bill allow companies to provide even greater detail about the number and type of government requests they receive for customer information.”

Supporters claim the bid to rein in government surveillance has support from both sides of the aisle.

“The American people are wondering whether Congress can get anything done,” Leahy said last week, after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) filed the first procedural motion for the Senate to consider the bill. “The answer is yes. Congress can and should take up and pass the bipartisan USA Freedom Act, without delay.”