After weeks of delay, the U.S. Senate is finally ready to move forward with the passage of a key reform bill aimed at scaling back the National Security Agency’s spying powers.
The Senate voted 83–14 Tuesday to consider the House-passed version of the USA Freedom Act, a bill that would curtail the NSA’s phone metadata program and prevent the government from siphoning and storing mass amounts of data from telecommunications companies.
But while the bill is expected pass through the Senate as early as Tuesday night, privacy advocates have seemingly turned on hailed-privacy champion and 2016 presidential candidate Rand Paul (R-KY) for stalling tactics that delayed Sunday’s vote to begin debate on USA Freedom and forced temporary sunset of portions of the Patriot Act.t.
“I’ve certainly heard a little frustration. And it is ironic that because Paul was not willing to let things move forward last night, there’s now an opportunity for the senate majority leader to weaken the bill,” said Nathan White, senior legislative manager for Access Now in Washington, D.C.
“But if he had not done what he did last week, and held true to his grounds it would not have created the conditions for McConnell to use the bill as his base option,” and attempt to amend USA Freedom rather than pass a straight re-authorization of the Patriot Act.
So, all Rand Paul accomplished was giving McConnell an opportunity for bad amendments he'd otherwise have foregone. https://t.co/KsGkkOBkKq
— Kevin Bankston (@KevinBankston) June 1, 2015
Rand Paul Won’t Get a Vote Amendments to improve NSA Reform Bill—But Mitch McConnell Will to undermine it http://t.co/z0jCI9AqQs
— Amie Stepanovich (@astepanovich) June 1, 2015
“He was definitely grandstanding; there’s not doubt about that. But that doesn’t mean he was wrong,” said Sascha Meinrath, tech policy expert and founder of the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute in Washington, D.C.
“Everything he said was on point and accurate. The fact that some of his Senate colleagues — including some competing with him for the GOP nomination — are attacking him is hardly surprising. The fact that some in the civil liberties community — exclusively on the left, so far as I know — are criticizing the most vocal Congressional champion for ending the ‘surveillance state’ is, to say the least, rather self-defeating,”said Patrick Eddington, former Central Intelligence Agency analyst current national security policy expert with CATO, a libertarian think tank in Washington, D.C.
Following a near 11-hour filibuster speech last week, Paul successfully blocked an attempt to extend Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which helps give the government the authority to mass collect phone call data from telecommunications companies. But privacy advocates have grown frustrated and worry that, while they agree with his principles, Paul’s tactics may have made it easier for the Senate to weaken an already compromised bill.
Sen. McConnell has tacked on amendments to the House version of USA Freedom Act, which would extend the government’s transition period from 180 days to a year, reduce the capabilities of the civilian advocate to the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, and require telecommunication companies to notify the government before purging phone data that’s kept for billing purposes. Paul and Rep. Ron Wyden (D-OR) have also released a series of amendments to counter the ones McConnell introduced. Any amendments approved in the Senate vote would then have to be approved by the House, and some worry amendments McConnell adds could torpedo support.
“People have different positions on Paul’s opinions. [Privacy advocates] appreciate how focused he is on bringing attention to these issues,” said Jake Laperruque, privacy and national security fellow for the Center for Democracy and Technology in Washington, D.C. “Why did Rand Paul delay these things? I haven’t heard any benefits to delaying the vote a few days. But the focus should be on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.” “The sunset, even though it’s a victory, it’s not a complete one,” Laperruque said. For example, national security letters, which give law enforcement agencies the ability to compel companies or organizations to turn over customer records in bulk, and trap and trace devices that track incoming and outgoing calls, as surveillance tools that are still active even with the temporary Patriot Act sunset. “So if we want to stop bulk collection in full we need to pass USA Freedom,” he said.
“Right now we’re in a period of sunset, if the Senate adopts any of McConnell’s amendments, it has to go back to the House, [which] extends the sunset period,” White said. By adding on the amendments, McConnell is extending the amount of time the government can’t use the program he defends, he said.
In the meantime as the Senate prepares to vote, it’s still unclear the extent of damage this week’s partial sunset of the Patriot Act did to national security and the government’s data collecting abilities because there’s little transparency from the White House.
Cindy Cohn, executive director and general counsel for the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco, said on a media call Monday: “The government has not come out and said authoritatively what it can and cannot do now that Section 215 has expired. And until we actually address [transparency] and the culture of secrecy in the government, we won’t have true reform.”