Last Thursday, the Senate Intelligence Committee passed a bill by an 11-4 vote that aims largely to heighten the National Security Agency’s (NSA) congressional reporting requirements regarding phone searches authorized by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC). The bill would also require the NSA to report the frequency with which such searches lead to a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigation, according to a recent report by The Miami Herald.
Among the bill’s naysayers was Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) who would have preferred a bill that would “codify overbroad surveillance practices that infringe on constitutional rights of law-abiding Americans without making America any safer.”
Similarly, according to The Herald, Senator Mark Udal (D-Colo.) did not believe the bill went far enough to address the NSA’s overreaching practices. Defending the bill, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said:
The NSA call-records program is legal and subject to extensive congressional and judicial oversight, and I believe it contributes to our national security.
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