Competing NSA Reform Bills Suddenly Lurch Forward In Congress

from the well-this-might-get-interesting dept

Mon, May 5th 2014 2:18pm — Mike Masnick

In a bit of a surprise move, the House Judiciary Committee, led by Rep. Bob Goodlatte, caught people off guard this morning by announcing that there would be a markup of the USA FREEDOM Act on Wednesday, complete with a Manager's Amendment from bill author Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner. If you don't recall, the USA FREEDOM Act was the best bet for real NSA reforms. It was far from perfect, but did actually do a lot of good things without adding a bunch of bad things. The amended version scales that back a bit. It's not as good, but it's still pretty good. Harley Geiger, over at CDT has a good overview of the Manager's Amendment, and how it actually improves the bill in certain areas, while Marcy Wheeler highlights both the good and bad of the amendment.

Of course, within just a few minutes of the Judiciary Committee announcing its plans to move forward with the USA FREEDOM Act, the House Intelligence Committee announced that it would hold its own damn markup on the competing "NSA reform" bill from Reps. Mike Rogers and Dutch Ruppersberger, which is designed to look like a shot at NSA reform, but which really would make it easier for the NSA to collect info on people. That bill, called the FISA Transparency and Modernization Act (almost none of that is true), is basically the NSA's prime choice for pretending to be reform.

This sets up a bit of an upcoming fight -- assuming that both markups lead to bills getting voted out of committee -- to see which bill House Speaker John Boehner is willing to bring to the floor. Basically, Boehner gets to make the final decision on NSA reform at this stage. Will he bring the real reform bill or the fake one?

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Filed Under: bob goodlatte, congress, dutch ruppersberger, fisa, house intelligence committee, house judiciary committee, jim sensenbrenner, mike rogers, nsa, reform, surveillance, transparency, usa freedom act

15 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 5 May 2014 @ 2:51pm

"FISA Transparency and Modernization Act"

Isn't the modern era over? Why don't they legislate based on an era that is a bit more current?
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- Anonymous Coward, 5 May 2014 @ 3:32pm
  
  Re:
  "FISA Clarifier and Reconditioner" -- nothing but makeup.
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- Anonymous, 5 May 2014 @ 4:18pm
  
  Re:
  Um...what is more current than modern?
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  - Lurker Keith, 5 May 2014 @ 11:54pm
    
    Re: Re:
    Haven't you heard? We've partially caught up to the "future". (only partially, because we still don't have stupid flying cars or hoverboards).
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    - Anonymous Coward, 6 May 2014 @ 7:47am
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      We have self-tying high-tops, though!
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- The Wanderer (profile), 6 May 2014 @ 5:03am
  
  Re:
  "Modern" is rooted in a now-obscure sense of the word "mode", as in "pie a la mode" (pie with ice cream), which originally meant "pie served in the way which is currently fashionable". Hence, "modern" is semantically related to "fashionable", much as "mode" is similar in meaning to "fashion".
  
  The only way to be "more current" than "modern" is to be ahead of the fashionability / popularity curve. The "postmodern" movement is oxymoronic, and the only things "after the modern era" are in the future.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 7 May 2014 @ 7:02am
    
    Re: Re:
    Ever since college, when I hear the word modern, I immediately think outdated.
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tracyanne (profile), 5 May 2014 @ 3:14pm

I'm betting on the fake one
:)
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AricTheRed (profile), 5 May 2014 @ 3:47pm

If you can't uphold your oath, just Fake It! (When Harry Met Sally style)
I suspect the American People are tired of Mike Rogers and Dutch Ruppersberger "Faking It" I know I am.

I wonder if they "Fake It" at home also and if their wives are tired of it too or if they just fake it better there?
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- Anonymous Coward, 5 May 2014 @ 4:20pm
  
  Re: If you can't uphold your oath, just Fake It! (When Harry Met Sally style)
  I'm pretty sure it's their wives that are "faking it." They're terrible at serving the people, just imagine how terrible they are serving their wives.
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  - Anonymous, 5 May 2014 @ 5:00pm
    
    Re: Re: If you can't uphold your oath, just Fake It! (When Harry Met Sally style)
    If you were Mike Rogers' wife, wouldn't YOU?
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Anonymous Coward, 5 May 2014 @ 4:44pm

2 Zombies competting...
for your brain... yay!
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That One Guy (profile), 5 May 2014 @ 5:26pm

Action, re-action
Pretty obvious how it happened, as long as congress and the senate only threaten to 'reign in' the NSA(and, let's be honest, that's all they've done so far and are likely to do in the future without some hefty pushing from the public), the 'bill' to protect the NSA wasn't needed.

As soon as the bill went 'live' though, then the decoy was deployed, in the hopes that enough politicians will fall for it and/or not want to go against the NSA while at the same time wanting to look like they're 'doing something', drawing attention, and votes, away from the real fix.
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Anonymous Coward, 6 May 2014 @ 5:54am

'Will House Speaker John Boehner bring the real reform bill or the fake one?'

it depends on which of the proposers has issued the biggest threat and therefore who he fears the most. i just hope he remembers that ultimately, the people, are the ones to fear the most!
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Anonymous Coward, 6 May 2014 @ 8:23am

Your best bet is to never trust a thing Rep. Mike Rogers says or does.
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