The USA Freedom Act was reintroduced in the US House of Representatives recently. It proposes to curtail the mass collection of the telephone records of US citizens under section 215 of the USA Patriot Act, , and force intelligence agencies to justify selective acquisition — more in accordance with the principles laid out in the US Constitution. The bill was approved by the House Judiciary Committee with a vote of 25-2.
Originally introduced as H.R. 3361 was first introduced in 2013. That version also passed the Judiciary Committee, but was abandoned in 2014 as it lost support due to amendments and compromises. The original bill was strongly supported by civil rights groups and the tech industry, led by Apple and Google, who lobbied Congress for swift action on the measure.
This new effort is based largely on the 2013 bill, and attempts to prohibit the broad-spectrum gathering of “tangible things” (i.e., mass collection of data without cause or warrant) and sets requirements for call detail records. In particular, the bill amends the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, requiring more transparency in requests to FISA courts for these “tangible things” and records.
Just as with the previous version, the 2015 USA Freedom Act will no doubt face opposition, amendments, and compromises. The process had already begun before the bill even hit the Committee, according to an analysis of the markup by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. However, it was passed “as is” out of the committee.
The House may be voting on the bill as early as June.
