Senate Republicans Push to Stop Reform to NSA Surveillance Programs
Republican supporters of NSA surveillance are pushing to stop Congress from passing legislation that would curb the U.S. government from prying into the lives of its citizens.
Earlier this week, the House of Representatives overwhelming approved the USA Freedom Act, which was designed to prevent the NSA surveillance program from collecting American's phone records. The bill was passed after a federal appeals court ruled that NSA's call records spying program is unlawful.
Under the bill, some Fisa court opinions would be forced to be revealed, while the NSA would no longer be allowed to collect every phone record in the country on a daily basis, reports The Guardian.
However, critics say that the bill includes a number of loopholes and vague clauses that could potentially allow the NSA to continue to collect a lot of information, and would do little to curb the NSA's surveillance policies. As a result, they say it's a win for the NSA, not Americans who champion civil liberty and privacy protection.
According to The Daily Beast, an unidentified former intelligence official called the bill "a big win for the NSA," while another said, "The NSA is coming out of this unscathed."
Nonetheless, those who support government surveillance policies, like Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, are calling an extension of the Patriot Act, which gives the government authority to spy on Americans. The Republican leader and a GOP defense hawks argue that reforms to the NSA's surveillance operations could make Americans more vulnerable to terrorist attacks, reports Government Executive.
Republican Sen. Bob Corker also claims that the NSA has actually too little data to effectively keep Americans safe.
"It is beyond belief how little data is part of the program, and the type of data, especially if the goal is to deal with terrorists or recover terrorists," the National Journal reported.
* This is a contributed article and this content does not necessarily represent the views of latinpost.com