ACLU Urges Senate to Move Forward with NSA Reform Bill

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Rachel Nusbaum, 202-417-7547, dcmedia@aclu.org

WASHINGTON – Today, the Senate will vote on whether to move forward with consideration of the USA Freedom Act, a bipartisan reform bill to rein in the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of Americans’ phone records and metadata under Section 215 of the Patriot Act. This bill would ban bulk collection and limit the ability of the NSA to conduct broad collection of records. It would also provide for greater transparency and create a public advocate to represent privacy concerns in the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Courts (FISC).

Laura W. Murphy, director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office, had this comment:

“If passed, this bill would be the first by the Senate to address the rampant, abusive government surveillance first revealed by Edward Snowden over a year ago. It has taken a broad coalition of privacy groups, businesses, liberals and conservatives to get us to this point and we will all continue to fight to make sure this bill becomes law. Congress should swiftly pass this bill, without allowing it to be weakened on the floor with malicious amendments, and then it should immediately turn its attention to reforming the other sources of abuse. The USA Freedom Act is an important first step towards ensuring that Americans are no longer asked to make a false choice between liberty and security. We expect both.”