Polis Votes Against Weakened USA Freedom Act

Press Release

Representative Jared Polis (CO-02) today voted against the so-called USA Freedom Act, following substantial modifications to the legislation that occurred behind closed doors and significantly weakened the protections against unwarranted government data collection. The House Majority leadership refused to consider any amendments to the diluted legislation.

"Reining in the National Security Agency's illegal and far-reaching wiretapping programs is necessary and overdue," said Representative Polis. "Unfortunately, the USA Freedom Act, which I cosponsored as introduced, has been watered down and co-opted to the point that it creates the possibility that NSA could misuse the bill -- contrary to the legislative intent -- to conduct broad searches of communication records. I will continue working to ensure American's liberties are protected and the government cannot monitor anyone's communications without due process and a warrant based on probable cause."

The modified bill's definition of "specific selection term" could be read to create a loophole permitting intelligence agencies to use selection terms that permit the collection of large segments of data associated with a particular email domain or IP address.

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