House strikes last-minute surveillance deal

The Hill ^ | Mike Lillis | Mike Lillis

[yesthatjallen]

House leaders on Tuesday struck an agreement to reauthorize a key surveillance bill, clinching a bipartisan deal on the contentious legislation just days before it’s set to expire.

The move follows months of hard-fought negotiations that found disagreements not only between the parties, but within them as well.

Leaders in both parties say they expect the bill to pass through the House on Wednesday, sending it to the Senate with four days to spare before the March 15 expiration.

The deal came together after negotiators launched an 11th-hour effort to mollify an unusual coalition of dissenting voices: liberal Democrats and libertarian Republicans, who had snarled the talks by insisting on additional privacy protections in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). That put them at odds with those arguing that a clean reauthorization bill had a better chance of making it through the Senate.

Always controversial, the questions swirling around the government’s surveillance powers have pit national security hawks against proponents of stronger civil liberties. And the compromise unveiled Tuesday aims to balance those concerns delicately enough to win stamps of approval from both chambers.

SNIP

If passed, the reauthorization bill would extend three expiring provisions of the USA Freedom Act that touch on roving wiretaps, lone wolf surveillance and a controversial program that allows the U.S. government to request access to phone metadata.

The bill will also include more privacy protections.

SNIP

[rigelkentaurus]

Sounds like some wallpaper that pretends to cover the massive security holes that exist. If it passes Congress, VETO.

[lodi90]

Just elect more Republicans. That will fix everything. /s

[Go Gordon]

No to any extension of FISA until all those officials who have engaged in abuse are fully prosecuted and all judges who have presided over the abuse are removed from the bench.

Even if passed by the Senate, can't President Trump simply veto the bill? There would be no time to override the veto in time to meet the March 15th deadline. Once sunset, wouldn't congress have to start an entirely new legislative process to get the FISC back in?

[MrEdd]

Elect Nationalists.

[DesertRhino]

Gosh, and I thought that the government would admit they were despotic and give up domestic spying./s

[stockpirate]

Only Deep State Whores will vote for this bill.

[novemberslady]

please veto this
They have too much power

[zeugma]

You know this whole thing is a sham when Devin Nunes — who seems to spend most of his waking hours on Fox News complaining about FISA abuses — turns out to be the strongest advocate in Congress for renewing the FISA surveillance authorization.

Yes. Isn't it amazing that congress can always find time to support the powers of the police state? Trump really ought to veto this, but he won't because the entire political establishment of both parties would scream bloody murder, and be fully amplified by media megaphones. It's a real shame this bill wasn't up for renewal a year from now. Trump could tell the powers that be to fuck off.