Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., is...
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., is “reviewing” the House-passed version of the USA Freedom Act, HR-3361, “very carefully,” she said in a statement Thursday, citing the “considerable margin” by which it passed the House earlier that day (CD…
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May 23 p9). “I have spoken with the president who is urging the Senate to pass the bill as well, and I am open to considering the legislation when the Senate returns to Washington.” Feinstein has strongly defended NSA surveillance authorities over the past year and discouraged lawmakers from curbing bulk collection of metadata. Several of the USA Freedom Act’s original co-sponsors in the House abandoned it, voting no, and multiple Senate Democrats who backed the original USA Freedom Act, introduced last fall, already have cautioned that the modified House version may be too weak to prevent government surveillance. The New York Times released an editorial (http://nyti.ms/1jL9HOI) Thursday evening slamming the bill due to such concerns: “Unfortunately, the bill passed by the House on Thursday falls far short of those promises, and does not live up to its title, the U.S.A. Freedom Act. Because of last-minute pressure from a recalcitrant Obama administration, the bill contains loopholes that dilute the strong restrictions in an earlier version, potentially allowing the spy agencies to continue much of their phone-data collection.”