Rep. Justin Amash Pushing To Strip The NSA's Funding With An Amendment To The Defense Appropriations Bill
from the no-money-no-problems dept
Have you ever wondered what it might take to shut the NSA down? It's not like you can vote the agency out of office, and a great many of those in office are either defending its practices or can't be bothered to find out why the recent leaks are such a big deal.
Rep. Justin Amash has an idea -- punch the NSA straight in the wallet.
Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) is mounting a push this week to defund the surveillance programs at the National Security Agency.It's a rather unlikely plan. Institutions like this simply don't vanish just because their funding has been stripped. Plus, as noted above, the NSA still has many defenders, not the least of which is the President.
Amash said Monday that the defense appropriations bill, which could come to the House floor this week, was a chance to stop the NSA’s “unconstitutional spying on Americans.”
“Most important bill this week: DoD Approps. We can defund #NSA's unconstitutional spying on Americans--if House leaders allow amendments, Amash tweeted Monday.
Amash's attempt at bankrupting the NSA (of money, not morals) will be entertaining to observe, if nothing else. Unfortunately, the House is stacking the deck against him, removing the open amendment process that's been in use since the Republicans took over defense appropriations in 2011.
House Republican leaders are considering limiting amendments to the defense bill out of concern for proposals that Amash and other lawmakers might bring forward.Convenient, isn't it? If you don't like the way the game is going, change the rules. Why won't the House Republicans allow this appropriations bill to move through the system, gathering pork and pet legislation in a Katamari-esque fashion, like it has in the past? Well, it seems that opportunists like Amash might sully the pristine legislative process with excessive amendments, something the country simply can't afford in these times of tenuous safety.
“While this is not the traditional process for this bill, there are a number of sensitive and ongoing issues related to national security that are more appropriately handled through an orderly amendment process ensuring timely consideration of this important measure,” [Rules Committee Chairman Pete] Sessions wrote.Amash is undeterred and has promised to continue streamlining the language of his NSA-defunding amendment in hopes of attaching it to the appropriations bill.
"At the end of the day, it's going to be a political decision by our leadership if they want to give it a floor vote," [Amash spokesperson Will] Adams said.Let's hope they do. If nothing else, it will result in a few days of panic and shouting as the possibility of the NSA having to hold bake sales to fund data interception edges towards reality.
More seriously, though, Amash's attempted amendment doesn't really address the multiple issues surrounding the NSA's overreach. It does help keep attention focused on the agency, which is a good thing. But it's going to take something more than a defunding attempt or a class action suit to really curb the NSA's surveillance programs. Legislation is almost impossible to walk back once passed into law and the secrecy surrounding the laws (and the laws' interpretations) will make any attempt to do this an excruciating uphill battle against entrenched interests, both public and private. Hopefully, representatives like Amash will continue the battle to restore the rights of their constituents.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: appropriations, congress, funding, justin amaash, nsa, nsa surveillance
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
I'm hoping the event horizon has not been left behind already...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I just don't get how you're going to get approval for an Amendment like this with so many Congressman in favor of the NSA's illegal surveillance...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
And given that god doesn't exist, that's no mean feat.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Remember 911
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Remember 911
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Remember 911
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Remember 911
Hell I even bleach my butthole just to show them how civilized I am.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Remember 911
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I have a bad feeling about this ...
It only means they will have to turn to alternative sources of funding. They could try bake sales, but I don't think they have much in the way of cookie ingredients. What they do have is a huge amount of personal data on US citizens - which would be very valuable to any number of companies and ad networks out there.
Think it was bad when the government had the data? It'll only get worse when everyone else gets a copy as well!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Funding squeeze? Not to darned likely!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I want a list of names...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Nice try, have a cigar
Refreshing, actually.
But as been noted, it will be a futile effort and gesture-because the DoD budget is a sacred cow, and nobody kills those.
As for who supports the NSA? Try all of the defense lobbyists, the President, most of Congress-plus those employed by the NSA.
Thousands of people. Only a few of whom are powerful enough to force change.
It will take enormous and sustained effort, lots of court battles, wins and losses before this is over, if it is ever over.
Nobody knows who will win, either.
One good step though right now-fire Keith Alexander, immediately. He's the driving architect of this program and its' expansion. He's one of many, but one of the most important..plus Clapper, who should be not only fired but prosecuted for lying to Congress.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Bankrupt the Organization sounds familiar
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I'd go the other direction
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I'd go the other direction
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I'd go the other direction
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
A nice image, a bunch of brutal looking thugs with aprons and oven gloves cooking and selling pies.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
It's fine to cut the budget, but...
Don't know? Well that's perfectly understandable. Because the NSA budget is buried inside a classified programs allocation... which then gets buried inside a larger DoD budget bill...and then this bill gets voted on without our legislature ever being allowed to examine how some extremely large amounts of money will actually get allocated because...(wait for it)...IT'S SECRET!
Yes, they vote on the NSA budget without ever knowing what that budget is or for what it will be used for. Small wonder the PRISM facility in Utah got built with so little fanfare or concern.
You just have tp love that circular national security "logic." Protecting our nations freedom by the simple expedient of taking our nations freedoms away.
Oh well. At least we can take comfort knowing it wasn't some "damn ferriners" that stole it from us.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Saw this coming
It may not work, but it's a good first shot.
Another amendment they want to avoid is one to separate out the NSA Budget to be looked at later, in detail.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
use REd tape :)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
repeal or defund the NSA
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
maybe for the best..??
[ link to this | view in chronology ]