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

Tue, Jul 16th 2013 6:52am — Tim Cushing

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.

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.

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'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.

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Filed Under: appropriations, congress, funding, justin amaash, nsa, nsa surveillance

31 Comments

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Ninja (profile), 16 Jul 2013 @ 6:14am

No worries, some secret court can overturn anything against the NSA with secret interpretations. And since the defense budget is classified nobody will ever know.

I'm hoping the event horizon has not been left behind already...
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Jul 2013 @ 7:21am

Love the enthusiasm, but it will take an Act of Congress (which is harder to come by than an Act of God these days...) to do anything like this.

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...
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Jul 2013 @ 7:35am

Re:
If we all stop working, we effectively shut down all funding for these morons.
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Jul 2013 @ 7:38am

Re:
Get someone in the NSA to publish as many details of probable sexual liaisons of congress critters that they can find.
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Pragmatic, 16 Jul 2013 @ 7:40am

AC, cutting its budget won't work, they'll just rob Medicare or something to pay for it.
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Atheistic Coward, 16 Jul 2013 @ 7:46am

Re:
"it will take an Act of Congress (which is harder to come by than an Act of God these days...) to do anything like this."

And given that god doesn't exist, that's no mean feat.
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theDude, 16 Jul 2013 @ 7:52am

Remember 911
If we dont maintain our totalitarian police state . . . AlQuida wins!
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Jul 2013 @ 8:17am

Re:
Maybe Congress should also be pushing for defense budget transparency.
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Jul 2013 @ 8:32am

strange how a person that gave speeches etc on The Constitution and who is now President, can dismiss everything in favour of continuing to fund law enforcement agencies and therefore must be in favour himself of the spying on USA (and almost every other country's as well) citizens instead.
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ethorad (profile), 16 Jul 2013 @ 8:36am

I have a bad feeling about this ...
I don't think cutting the NSA's funding will help matters.

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!
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Spaceman Spiff (profile), 16 Jul 2013 @ 8:45am

Funding squeeze? Not to darned likely!
The NSA has so much black-bag funding, plus all the "private" front companies that do R&D for them, that they will just move money from some projects, out-source the data gathering and surveillance programs to one of these entities, and go on doing "business" as usual.
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Jul 2013 @ 8:46am

I want a list of names...
... of everyone who gets behind this and everyone who tries to prevent it. The only way to end this short of a revolution is to get all the NSA surveillance backers out of office. This needs to be the main issue next year come election time.
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FM Hilton, 16 Jul 2013 @ 9:15am

Nice try, have a cigar
It's nice that someone in Congress is mad enough to do something about the NSA.

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.
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shutslar (profile), 16 Jul 2013 @ 9:34am

Bankrupt the Organization sounds familiar
Want to know how all this secret organization, with secret rules, unlimited access, no oversight, etc. works out? Sounds like the entire Nakita series on TV a few years back. Maybe we can watch the last couple episodes and see what is going to happen.
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Jul 2013 @ 9:38am

I'd go the other direction
If I was Verizon or AT&T, I'd just start charging the NSA a couple hundred million per request. Give my company a big fat profit margin at the same time. I mean, this information is important, right? That means demand for it is increasing and supply hasn't changed. Therefore, price goes up. So sorry NSA.
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Rich, 16 Jul 2013 @ 10:01am

Re: I'd go the other direction
That's sweetly naive of you to think you can hand the government a bill when they come knocking.
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That One Guy (profile), 16 Jul 2013 @ 10:03am

Re: Remember 911
I know that was sarcasm, but it bears repeating: with the single attack on 9/11 so many years ago, and the massive overreaction on the part of the people and the government, terrorists everywhere, and in particular Al Qaeda, won a greater victory over the US they could have ever dreamed to.
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YetAnotherAnon, 16 Jul 2013 @ 10:22am

I doubt we can cut off the money, Google has proven that there is a lot of money to be made selling the data.
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The dude, 16 Jul 2013 @ 10:24am

"the NSA having to hold bake sales to fund data interception"
A nice image, a bunch of brutal looking thugs with aprons and oven gloves cooking and selling pies.
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Jul 2013 @ 10:31am

Re: Remember 911
You're right dude! That's why from the hours of 2 am to 6 am I stand outside naked bent over with my cheeks spread. This is so they know I have nothing to hide at all.

Hell I even bleach my butthole just to show them how civilized I am.
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Votre (profile), 16 Jul 2013 @ 11:00am

It's fine to cut the budget, but...
All well and good to cut the NSA's budget. But here's a thought question: Exactly how much is that budget currently?

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.
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Jul 2013 @ 11:03am

Re: Re: Remember 911
your obviously not Republican and therefor hate america
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Jul 2013 @ 11:30am

Re: Re: Remember 911
It's odd how the Patriot Act was being shopped around the day after 9/11. Legislation that massive can't be written over night.
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Jul 2013 @ 1:42pm

Just for thinking 'out of the wallet', you get my vote, dear sir. My vote in spirit , sir, 'coz I don't live in Michigan.
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Jul 2013 @ 2:31pm

Re: I'd go the other direction
They are charging per request. $100 million was just appropriated for the latest batch of these requests.
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Davey, 16 Jul 2013 @ 2:42pm

Re:
The NSA and the rest of the spooks have been beyond Congress's reach for decades. They live on secret slush funds that even Congress and the White House don't know about. The only chance of "reforming" NSA would be to abolish it entirely. Don't hold your breath.
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Anonymous, 16 Jul 2013 @ 4:49pm

You don't really think the government paid $400 for a hammer, do ya?
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Lurker Keith, 17 Jul 2013 @ 3:51am

Saw this coming
I've been wondering for a while now when someone in Congress would try this.

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.
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red_tape, 17 Jul 2013 @ 5:48am

use REd tape :)
A second nice solution is to explicitly deny the NSA right to replace employees that quit. This iwll slowly mess up their organisaton :)
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Sparkle508, 18 Jul 2013 @ 11:04pm

repeal or defund the NSA
Something has to be done......as soon as possible. The IRS should be defunded too.......corruption is rampade......... & my children are paying taxes for this money blowning in the wind....Stop the with holding tax.....&......put in a flat tax......
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Terry, 28 Sep 2013 @ 8:09pm

maybe for the best..??
May it happen, a government shut down. The only way to stop the N S A. It seems to be the silver lining. The way to stop the government from controlling its own people. When they should be working to solve problems instead of looking in american citizens E-mail and phone records to find anything they can use against Americans. That is the reason the office holders don't vote against it { we got your records}.
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