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Tell your Senator: We need real reform of the NSA, not Senator Feinstein’s sham bill
A federal judge ruled yesterday that the National Security Administration's dragnet collecting information on nearly all U.S. telephone calls is likely unconstitutional. But meanwhile in Congress, our representatives are moving to consolidate the NSA's power to spy on Americans without a warrant.
More than a dozen NSA reform bills have been introduced - but appallingly, only one has the support of the Obama administration. And it's the one that doesn't actually rein in the NSA.1
The bill, introduced by Sen. Dianne Feinstein and deceptively named the FISA Improvements Act, would codify the worst of the NSA's bulk collection programs while hypocritically touting itself as real, meaningful reform.
Tell your Senator: We need real reform of the NSA, not the fake fix Senator Feinstein is proposing.
The bill has already passed through committee and may see a vote as early as January – and given its has the support of the President, our best chance to stop it is in the Senate.
The FISA Improvements Act is an attempt to codify approval of current NSA programs under the guise of real reform. This is a step backwards, not forwards. Defeating Sen. Feinstein's bill is a fight we can win. There is support on both sides of the aisle for reining in the NSA. And if we can convince progressive Democrats to join with libertarian leaning Republicans to oppose this bill, we can kill it in the Senate.
The language of Sen. Feinstein's bill is intentionally misleading. She claims that the bill prohibits "the collection of bulk communication records under Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act except under specific procedures and restrictions set forth in the bill" or "the bulk collection of content of communications under section 215." 2
But in reality, the "specific procedures" mirror the decisions of the FISA Court that has approved bulk collection of records, and section 215 isn't even the primary program used by the NSA to collect the content of communications.
Tell your Senator: Oppose Senator Feinstein's FISA Improvements Act. It's fake reform that perpetuates NSA spying, while purporting to reform it.
The good news is that people aren't being fooled – Senator Feinstein's approval rating just hit the lowest point it's ever been during her two decades in the Senate, and it's largely because of her defense of the NSA spying programs.3
But that hasn't swayed Senator Feinstein's defense of the NSA, and her bill is moving quickly. We need as many Senators as possible on our side to make sure her fake fix doesn't ever become law, entrenching the NSA's unconstitutional spying. This federal court decision gives us momentum. But what can sway senators to vote against this bill is hearing from constituents like you.
Tell your Senator: We want an end to unconstitutional spying. Vote against the deceptively named FISA Improvement Act introduced by Sen. Feinstein.
- "State of Deception: Why won't the President rein in the intelligence community?" Ryan Lizza, the New Yorker, Dec 16, 2013
- "Feinstein Releases Fake NSA Reform Bill, Actually Tries To Legalize Illegal NSA Bulk Data Collection", Mike Masnick, Tech Dirt, Oct. 31, 2013
- "Why Feinstein's approval is sinking in new poll", Joe Garofoli, SF Chronicle, Dec. 14, 2013
CREDO Action is a publication of Working Assets | credomobile.com
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