US Congress OKs ‘unprecedented’ codification of warrantless surveillance by Lisa Vaas.
From the post:
Congress last week quietly passed a bill to reauthorize funding for intelligence agencies, over objections that it gives the government “virtually unlimited access to the communications of every American”, without warrant, and allows for indefinite storage of some intercepted material, including anything that’s “enciphered”.
That’s how it was summed up by Rep. Justin Amash, a Republican from Michigan, who pitched and lost a last-minute battle to kill the bill.
The bill is titled the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015.
Amash said that the bill was “rushed to the floor” of the house for a vote, following the Senate having passed a version with a new section – Section 309 – that the House had never considered.
Lisa reports that the bill codifies Executive Order 12333, a Ronald Reagan remnant from an earlier attempt to dismantle the United States Constitution.
There is a petition underway to ask President Obama to veto the bill. Are you a large bank? Skip the petition and give the President a call.
From Lisa’s report, it sounds like Congress needs a DEW Line for legislation:
Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat who voted against the bill, told the National Journal that the Senate’s unanimous passage of the bill was sneaky and ensured that the House would rubberstamp it without looking too closely:
If this hadn’t been snuck in, I doubt it would have passed. A lot of members were not even aware that this new provision had been inserted last-minute. Had we been given an additional day, we may have stopped it.
How do you “sneak in” legislation in a public body?
Suggestions on an early warning system for changes to legislation between the two houses of Congress?