Currently a fugitive of the run, Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor openly stated that government uses the USA Patriotic Act for the secret collection and surveillance of metadata and ended up igniting a controversy on the transparency of the American intelligence community. The House of Judiciary Committee has passed a bill known as the USA Freedom Act 2 years later targeting to prevent the government to keep on prioritizing national security of civil liberties.
Strong support has been shown for this new move with a 25-2 vote by the House of Judiciary Committee. It is expected that the House will follow suit and vote for passing the bill. Rep. Adam Schiff of California said that a bipartisan House vote “will send a strong message to the Senate that in the House, both sides of the aisle want reforms.” That is when Congress will get an opportunity to redraft the Patriot Act on June 1, when three sections of the bill will be up for reauthorization.
The approval of the Freedom Act will prohibit NSA from collecting bulk metadata and will only be able to access data stored by phone companies if they gain approval of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court at first. A lineup of a board of experts will also be mandated by the bill for helping to provide the Court with civil liberty and technological issue assistance.
Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, a co-author of the Freedom Act and was the original author of the Patriot Act said, “The bill ends bulk collection, it ends secret law. It increases the transparency of our intelligence community and it does all this without compromising national security.”
The Freedom Act will not be limiting the retention of data collected about individuals with no connection to a legitimate suspect and does not change the Drug Enforcement Administration’s surveillance program. This has gained extensive support from lawmakers and human rights advocates.