Tech giants have been left hanging by the Senate as lawmakers took off for the midterm elections break without passing a new bill cracking down on the National Security Agency’s spy program.
Silicon Valley companies like Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo had hoped that the proposed legislation would reduce the NSA’s mass collection of phone data, which was initially exposed by fugitive leaker Edward Snowden,
Politico reports.
But the recent terrorism threats from such groups as the violent Islamic State (ISIS) has thrown a spanner in the works, with Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and others pushing back against widespread reforms to the government’s surveillance program.
And now it looks like the bill, which could reduce the NSA’s ability to detect terror threats, will be put on hold during a possible lame-duck session after the November elections, according to Politico.
"I think it was a frustrating year for us, the lack of action on our issues — but it was frustrating for everyone for the lack of action on any issues," said Linda Moore, the leader of TechNet, a trade group representing companies like Cisco and Microsoft.
"But I do believe we made progress on our issues; there was a lot of discussion," she told Politico. "Educating members could bear fruit next year."
The bill to reduce NSA’s power, called the USA Freedom Act, has hit a roadblock in the Senate despite receiving the backing of National Security Director James Clapper and other leading White House officials.
The impasse has been slammed by Vermont Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy, a main sponsor of the bill and the head of the Judiciary Committee, saying, "There is no excuse for not considering it in November."
Leahy added, "If senators want to vote against the bill, they have every right to do so. But the American public deserves to know where we stand on the issue of the bulk collection of innocent Americans’ phone records, and the intelligence community deserves some measure of predictability and certainty."
Democratic Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Mark Udall of Colorado are backing Leahy, while calling for strict controls of the NSA’s warrant-less so-called "backdoor searches."
But the bill has faced a challenge from Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, who has been an outspoken supporter of the NSA surveillance methods, as well as Sen. Saxby Chambliss, a Georgia Republican.
Although Feinstein agrees that there should be reforms, her differences with Leahy have not yet been hammered out, said Politico, which notes that the fate of the bill will partially depend on the level of surveillance permissible by the NSA.
Meanwhile, Republican Kentucky Sen. Ran Paul’s class action lawsuit against the NSA was put on hold pending an appeals court ruling on a similar case,
Politico reports.
Judge Richard Leon granted a Justice Department motion to postpone the suit while the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit considers the NSA surveillance issue in a separate lawsuit brought by activist Larry Klayman.
The libertarian-leaning Paul and the conservative group FreedomWorks filed the suit in February on behalf of all Americans affected by the agency’s bulk collection of phone data.
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