NSA defenders think they can make surveillance reform vanish. This is how wrong they are
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/04/nsa-surveillance-reform-politicians-2015
A dirty trick by politicians will come back to haunt them if a looming fight exposes the motherlode of spying power and shuts off the data vacuum
NSA defenders think they can make surveillance reform vanish. This is how wrong they are
Trevor Timm
Saturday 4 October 2014 08.00 EDT
NSA reform is not going away, even if officials in Congress and the White House are praying it does. The NSAs staunchest defenders are currently making one last attempt to kill any meaningful restrictions on surveillance, but in the process, theyre are on the verge of painting themselves into a corner they cant get out of just as even more secret spying on Americans comes to light.
As members of Congress fled from DC a week early last month to avoid voting on war with Isis before the midterms, they also abandoned all but the faintest hope of passing the USA Freedom Act the watered-down reform bill that has been the focus of so much debate about what to actually do about the NSA before the end of 2014.
NSA defenders may think theyre successfully running out the clock on reform efforts, but its about to come back to haunt them. As the Guardians Spencer Ackerman explained on Friday, if Congress refuses to vote on the USA Freedom Act when they come back for their lame duck session after Election Day, their strategic cowardice will set up a showdown come June, when Congress must re-authorize Section 215 of the Patriot Act the law allowing the NSA to vacuum up every Americans phone records.
The law will expire altogether if Congress doesnt affirmatively vote yes on it, which should effectively shut down the NSAs domestic metadata spying program. And its pretty clear the House doesnt have enough votes to pass any re-authorization.