Daines Fights to Protect Montanans from the NSA's Mass Data Collection

Press Release

Congressman Steve Daines has joined a bipartisan group of Representatives to put an end to the National Security Agency (NSA) bulk meta-data program and protect Americans from mass data collection of their phone records.

Daines is an original co-sponsor of H.R. 3361, the USA Freedom Act, which increases transparency, protects Americans from bulk collection of their communications records and requires the government to more aggressively filter and discard information about Americans accidentally collected through PRISM and related programs.

"After spending 12 years working in the technology sector, I know firsthand the power that data holds. I also understand the potential for abuse and the threats to Americans' civil liberties that come with mass collections of data," Daines stated. "Reports of the NSA blanket collection of Americans' phone records demonstrate the serious need for reforms to protect liberty and prevent abuse. That's why I'm proud to be an original co-sponsor of the USA Freedom Act to prevent the NSA from using the PATRIOT Act to collect the records of innocent Americans."

The USA Freedom Act would drastically limit NSA's data vacuum, increase transparency of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) and create an independent advocate to argue cases before the court on behalf of the public.

Under current policy, the supposed statutory authority for this "data vacuum" is Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act, which authorized federal intelligence and law enforcement agencies to seek a FISC order to collect "tangible items," such as phone or business records, relevant to a terrorism investigation. FISC has upheld bulk collection of all Americans' metadata by interpreting "relevant" extremely broadly. H.R. 3361, in sharp contrast, would authorize FISC to approve data collection from only individuals who are the target of a terrorism investigation or are believed to be agents of a foreign power.

Earlier this year, Congressman Daines supported an amendment to the 2014 Department of Defense Appropriations Act,introduced by Congressman Justin Amash (R-Mich.), which called for the end of NSA's blanket collection of Americans' telephone records by authorizing the FISA court to order the production of business records and other "tangible items" that pertain only to a person under an authorized counterterrorism investigation.

Source