More Than Half The Senate Skips Town Rather Than Attend Briefing About NSA Surveillance
from the that-one-time-when-they-almost-seemed-to-care dept
The NSA leaks have opened up somewhat of a dialogue in Washington, DC. Sure, there's a lot of yelling (some outraged; some defensive), but it finally seems as though some legislators might finally be on the same page as their constituents.
The Director of National Intelligence (James Clapper) and the head of the FBI (Robert Mueller) have both been questioned about the specifics of their domestic surveillance programs. Though the roots of these programs have been around for years, it's the first time many Americans have seen black-and-white proof of government-approved domestic spying. You kind of get the feeling that it's the first time for many of our lawmakers as well, even though many have claimed the NSA/FBI surveillance was all signed off and routed through proper channels, etc.
So, with all this heat coming down on Washington, how is it possible that less than half of our senators could be bothered to stick around DC long enough to catch a classified briefing on domestic surveillance?
A recent briefing by senior intelligence officials on surveillance programs failed to attract even half of the Senate, showing the lack of enthusiasm in Congress for learning about classified security programs.It's not as if the senators would have even needed to stick around until Friday. The briefing was scheduled for 2-1/2 hours after the Senate's last vote of the week, which took place at noon. Granted, the week for most representatives ends on Thursday and no one would think anything of it if this week had gone like any other. But it didn't, and the American public is still closely watching their representatives.
Many senators elected to leave Washington early Thursday afternoon instead of attending a briefing with James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence, Keith Alexander, the head of the National Security Agency (NSA), and other officials.
When all classified hell breaks loose, you would expect your elected officials to stay on point until a critical briefing is finished, at the minimum. It's rather disheartening to see legislators working for the weekend by 10 AM Thursday morning. If they can't be bothered to stick around until the end of the day on Thursday in order to stay current on the biggest issue, we've no reason to believe they're really looking to solve this problem.
Dianne Feinstein, oddly, was in the right this time:
“It’s hard to get this story out. Even now we have this big briefing — we’ve got Alexander, we’ve got the FBI, we’ve got the Justice Department, we have the FISA Court there, we have Clapper there — and people are leaving,” she said.One small point in the defense of the departing senators: this was a "briefing," not a "hearing." While some lively discussion might have been had (possibly taking the form of shouting or loud coughs of "bullshit!"), it's much more likely this would be a one-way blast from the aggrieved parties. And since most senators presumably received a copy of the talking points roughly around the same time Techdirt did, there's really no reason to hear these delivered live, in-person.
Still, this doesn't excuse their actions. This was a missed opportunity for those who left town before the briefing. Reps from nearly every entity currently under fire had been gathered in one room solely to address interested senate members, many of which claim to be very interested.
Lawmakers have been quick to call for increased congressional oversight of the phone and Internet monitoring programs, but many have been unwilling to skip flights or make other scheduling sacrifices to learn more of the secret details.Unfortunately, a roll call wasn't provided, so we don't know definitely who needs to be asked to put their plane tickets where their mouths are. But we're used to this -- legislators making concerned noises until the national "Business As Usual" light is flipped on in the cabin of the national plane. (Not only that, but we're used to being handed terrible metaphors, although usually by the legislators themselves, rather than a writer in search of a solid closing paragraph.)
Hopefully, this headcount will be leaked as well, resulting in a bit of shame-based focus from our men and women in Washington, who should return tanned and rested from the extended weekend and ready to start
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Filed Under: briefing, details, nsa, nsa surveillance, senate
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Meanwhile (and related to contacting senators), I'm still waiting to see the text of Senator Merkley's bill: S.1130.
From the Congressional Record, I understand that Mr Merkley introduced S.1130 on Tuesday, June 11, 2013.
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I'm given to understand that a previous version of Senator Merkley's legislation was offered as S.Amdt. 3435 to H.R. 5949 (FISA Amendments Act Reauthorization Act of 2012).
That amendment was defeated by a vote of 54 NAY to 37 YEA (with 9 not voting) on December 27, 2012.
Of course, the text of S.1130 may differ from that earlier amendment.
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And since most senators presumably received a copy of the talking points roughly around the same time Techdirt did, there's really no reason to hear these delivered live, in-person.
Maybe some of those who didn't stay are really worried but they either had other appointments or they didn't expect the absence to be an issue so I don't think it was some ill-willed move by SOME of the absentees.
We need to be reasonable at this point. We must not condemn the Senators for an isolated fact.
But I do agree with this:
This was a missed opportunity for those who left town before the briefing. Reps from nearly every entity currently under fire had been gathered in one room solely to address interested senate members, many of which claim to be very interested.
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Pulling crap like this is why Congresses approval rating is at an all time low of 10%.
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I am shocked, shocked I say.
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It's called work. They should try doing it more often.
Seriously, I also have to take a lot of bullshit from vendors and clients plus drama from co-workers at my job apart from my regular functions. If I tried to bail out on a thursday, I might as well not even bother showing up on monday, because my boss would fire my fat ass.
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Not being in Washington doesn't automatically mean they're on vacation.
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When travel on this continent took place on horseback, and stagecoach, and river boat, and by foot, the legislators went to New York or Philiadelphia or to the City of Washington—for the session.
Even as the railroads began to open up the country, a trip to California was a matter of days.
We had —perhaps— —according to legend— a more collegial Senate and House of Representatives back then. Back when legislators of all parties drank and dined and played poker and socialized together.
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That was my first thought - this was probably a bigger turnout than the executive branch was hoping for.
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Re: hearing
That's the key. At a briefing, the Senators are expected to listen rather than talk, so they're not interested.
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I enjoyed this story--when I read it the other day on another website. Do you ever have anything original? Is the real reason you don't like "permission culture" because all you do is copy other people?
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A little late there!
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Fighting terrorists on our soil is a laudable goal but that the government should have never been given such unlimited power with no oversight.
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...and he's had what 7 "scandals" and counting?
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More Than Half The Senate Skips Town Rather Than Attend Briefing About NSA Surveillance
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Who cares
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Re: Who cares
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Re: Who cares
Cool. Then, feel free to post your name, age, social security number, bank account details, credit card numbers, past sexual partners, your medical files, every website you've surfed... etc.
After all, you've got nothing to hide, right?
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Re: Who cares
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peace and happiness
Maybe if those people voted in by the states are barred from going to congress due to a failure to do there jobs then maybe the states will send people who actually do the job.
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Re: peace and happiness
Thankfully, nobody has the unilateral power to remove a congressperson from office. I don't think there's even a recall process for them as there is for many state offices.
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Re: Re: peace and happiness
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You've Obama saying that it really wasn't that big a deal collecting metadata but notice he totally avoided any mention of being able to hear any individual phone call. It's that being able to spy not just on the metadata but also the total contents of a phone message that is the big problem and our government minimizes the real bullet for something much smaller.
You will remember the Patriot Act passed after 9/11 in a total of around 48 hours. Be sure that no congress critter actually read the bill in it's entirety. In other words they didn't know for sure what they were voting for any more than they knew what they were voting for with Obamacare. Pesoli, as speaker of the house, said you'll have to pass it to find out what's in it.
These congress critters have no real intention of letting the American Public in on what all has gone down in the name of National Security. That is "if they know". There's been several of these congress critters claiming they didn't vote to give blanket approval but if they don't know what's in the bill, likely they did.
This shows a very real breakdown of legislative actions. No one cares as long as they get theirs. Now if they were paid according to their job performance it might be different. As it is now, they don't even have to vote on their pay raises. It's automagically done at the end of the session so that these congress critters don't have to face the public questions over if they voted themselves a pay raise.
Honestly this whole thing stinks. The international fallout on this spying alone is going to be interesting to see with Hong Kong, China, Russia, and several other countries wanting to know who was spied on during treaty negotiations, by whom, and for what reason. Sweden has already ruled against Google being used in country for fears of US spying. Several other countries are now demanding answers, such as Germany and the UK. Despite the UK being right in the middle of this spying along with the Dutch.
The single thread has been pulled on the knitted sweater and I for one am curious how far this is going to unravel or if it fails to unravel. Either of which will tell you a lot about what's going on.
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Stay focused
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