Press Releases

Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers (D-Mich.), Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), and Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet Ranking Member Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) issued the following statement regarding attempts at a short-term extension in the Senate of the Patriot Act and other reported proposals.

“The USA Freedom Act is a carefully crafted compromise that has been worked on for nearly two years and was passed overwhelmingly in the House by a vote of 338-88. It has been fully vetted and has won the backing of the intelligence community, civil liberties groups, private industry, the Attorney General, and the President, as well as having the support of the American people. Importantly, the National Security Agency has said that the 180-day transition period contained in the bill is enough time to get the new call detail record program up and running.

“The House of Representatives has now acted twice to reform our intelligence-gathering programs, making sure it protects Americans’ liberties and our national security, but the Senate has failed to act. The Senate should immediately pass this bipartisan bill instead of hastily and irresponsibly trying to scramble something together in the eleventh hour. The short-term extensions and other proposals being discussed in the Senate don’t have the support to pass in the House of Representatives. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has already ruled the bulk collection program as unlawful and extending it any further is unacceptable.

“If the Senate rejects the USA Freedom Act, Section 215, including the bulk collection program some Senators are trying to preserve, will expire. While Section 215 was used to wrongly justify the government’s bulk collection program, it is also routinely used by the FBI in individual national security investigations to identify and apprehend terrorists and spies. The USA Freedom Act eliminates bulk collection while retaining the necessary tools to maintain our national security. The only way for the Senate to ensure that Americans’ civil liberties and our national security are protected is to pass the USA Freedom Act before June 1.”

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