Press Releases

Tomorrow morning, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee is holding a full committee hearing entitled “Examining Recommendations to Reform Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Authorities.”  In anticipation of the hearing, Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) issued the following statement:

“The public now understands that our government is engaged in widespread domestic surveillance.  This surveillance includes - but is not limited to - the government’s collection of records on virtually every phone call placed in the United States under Section 215 of the Patriot Act. Consensus is growing that this telephone metadata program is largely ineffective, inconsistent with our national values, and inconsistent with the statute as the House Judiciary Committee wrote it. The burden rests with the government to convince us otherwise.

“As it currently stands, the status quo is unacceptable. President Obama, his Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technology, and the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board all agree that the telephone metadata program as currently exists must end. I commend President Obama for his willingness to make these necessary changes.  Yet, the administration cannot solve this problem without Congress; the Judiciary Committee must act.

“Moving forward, the Judiciary Committee should consider H.R. 3361, the USA FREEDOM Act, as the right vehicle for reform.  This bipartisan legislation represents a reasonable, consensus view that: Congress should end bulk collection of telephone metadata while allowing the FBI’s continued use of normal business records orders on a case-by-case basis, enact additional protections for US persons whose communications are intercepted without a warrant, create an independent advocate to represent privacy and civil liberties interests before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) court, and declassify significant opinions issued by the FISA Court.  Already the USA FREEDOM Act enjoys the support of more than 130 Congressman - evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans - and our numbers grow every week.

“Our mandate is clear. We have heard from the President, from his panel of experts, and from an independent oversight board. We will reexamine their proposals, but the time for reform is now.  Our history has shown that insecurity threatens liberty.  Yet, if our liberties are curtailed, we lose the valued that we are struggling to defend.”

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