Sen. Mark Udall.
Sen. Mark Udall votes against measure, says more far-reaching reform is needed
By Summit Voice
FRISCO — A bill that would take baby steps toward curbing the excessive spying by U.S. intelligence agencies passed through a Senate committee this week, but the measure doesn’t go far enough, according to Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO), who has proposed legislation that would would rein in the dragnet collection of phone records, provide safeguards for warrantless wiretapping under the FISA Amendments Act, and create a constitutional advocate to protect privacy rights in cases before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
Udall voted against the bill, saying that Americans need more protection from snooping government agencies.
“The NSA’s ongoing, invasive surveillance of Americans’ private information does not respect our constitutional values and needs fundamental reform – not incidental change,” Udall said. “Unfortunately, the bill passed by the Senate Intelligence Committee does not go far enough to address the NSA’s overreaching domestic surveillance programs. “
I fought on the committee to replace this bill with real reform, and I will keep working to ensure our national security programs show the respect for the U.S. Constitution that Coloradans tell me they demand. As part of this effort, I will partner with other reform-minded colleagues from both political parties, like Senators Leahy, Wyden, and Paul to continue pushing on the Senate floor for real bipartisan reform that will help keep our nation safe while better protecting our privacy rights.”
Udall sought to amend the committee bill during the markup this week, yet the majority of committee members did not agree with Udall’s proposals, which would have ended the NSA’s ongoing bulk collection of Americans’ phone records and replaced the bill with Udall’s bipartisan surveillance-reform plan.
Udall and Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) have introduced a bipartisan, bicameral surveillance reform package that mirrors a bipartisan proposal that Udall introduced in September with Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.).
That Udall/Wyden/Blumenthal/Paul bill would rein in the dragnet collection of phone records, provide safeguards for warrantless wiretapping under the FISA Amendments Act, and create a constitutional advocate to protect privacy rights in cases before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
The bill introduced this week by Leahy and Udall would also expand safeguards on the use of national security letters and impose new and shorter sunset periods on controversial surveillance authorities. The bill is cosponsored in the U.S. House of Representatives by the original author of the PATRIOT Act, Republican Congressman James Sensenbrenner.
