Today, the Brennan Center, along with nearly 40 civil liberties and public interest groups, urged Senate leadership to pass the original version of the USA FREEDOM Act, a bill aimed at closing the loopholes that allows the NSA to collect, search, and store Americans’ data, rather than the watered-down version the House passed in May.
Specifically, groups want the Senate to make six improvements to the House bill, including:
- Definitively end bulk collection;
- Strengthen transparency reporting and other transparency provisions;
- Avoid ratifying dragnet searches of our international communications;
- Strengthen reforms to the FISA Court (FISC) process to provide more accountability;
- Restore strong minimization requirements for the FISA pen register and trap and trace surveillance authority; and
- Put strict limits on the new call detail records (CDR) authority