WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Tom Udall (D-N.M.) issued the following statement on yesterday’s Senate agreement to guarantee a full debate and votes on three amendments to protect constitutional rights, privacy, and civil liberties on recent House-passed legislation extending expiring authorities under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and the USA PATRIOT Act. The Senate approved a short-term extension of these authorities by voice vote.
Under the agreement, the Senate will schedule a debate and votes within the next 11 weeks on amendments to prohibit the worst abuses that followed the PATRIOT Act involving the warrantless bulk collection of Americans’ phone records and online activities, to ensure outside input and oversight of the FISA courts that issue classified rulings on surveillance matters and to safeguard civil and privacy rights for all Americans under the U.S. Constitution.
“I am relieved the Senate reached an agreement to stop this rush to extend these surveillance authorities for the long term without real reform. The last time we acted in a rush like this, in 2001, Congress went too far and weakened the limited protections Americans had from government surveillance by passing the PATRIOT Act. In the years since, we have watched as the government ultimately abused these already overbroad authorities to invade the privacy of millions of innocent Americans.
“Exhibit number one of this overreach has been Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act which has been greatly abused –resulting in the bulk collection of all call records of all customers of major telephone providers on a prospective basis. The nation was shocked when we found out about this bulk collection in 2013, and Congress has not fully reckoned with the accelerating use of Section 215 for records like email metadata. Congress now has the opportunity to set the proper balance between national security on the one hand and civil liberties on the other.
“What happened in the Senate yesterday is a victory – and a bipartisan one at that. Democrats and Republicans came together to stand up for the opportunity to pass genuine reform. We now have the time to scrutinize this bill, debate amendments – and produce an end product that protects both Americans’ civil rights and their security. I hope the Senate will act to prohibit of warrantless collection of web browsing and internet search history, as well as independent oversight of FISA by granting full amicus access to the FISA Court, and safeguard the privacy protections that are all Americans’ right under the constitution.”
Senator Udall was one of 66 members of the U.S. House of Representatives to oppose the original PATRIOT Act in October 2001 and he is a cosponsor of S. 3242, bipartisan FISA reform legislation
introduced by Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR)
and Steve Daines (R-MT).
