FISA Improvements Act

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FISA Improvements Act
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Long titleA bill to consolidate the congressional oversight provisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 and for other purposes.
Announced inthe 113th United States Congress
Sponsored by Dianne Feinstein
Number of co-sponsors0
Legislative history

The FISA Improvements Act is a proposed act [1] by Senator Dianne Feinstein, Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Prompted by the disclosure of NSA surveillance by Edward Snowden, it would establish the surveillance program as legal, but impose some limitations on availability of the data. Opponents say the bill would codify warrantless access to many communications of American citizens for use by domestic law enforcement. [2]

Contents

Overview

In the wake of the Snowden disclosures, President Obama and many lawmakers [3] [4] believed that restoration of public trust would require legislative changes. More than 20 bills have been written with the goal of reining in government surveillance powers. [5]

On October 28, 2013, Senator Dianne Feinstein, long described as a staunch defender of the National Security Agency (NSA), announced that a "total review of all intelligence programs is necessary". [6] [7] [8]

A bill was introduced by Feinstein on October 31, 2013. Amendments were offered and rejected. [9] The same day it was introduced, the bill passed the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence by a vote of 11-4. [10] The committee's report on the bill was published on November 12. [11]

Feinstein issued a press release saying that the bill would impose restrictions on how data is collected, including prohibiting bulk collection of the content of communications, and place a limit of five years on retention of the data. It would make unauthorized access to data obtained under the FISA orders punishable by ten years in prison. The bill would make the FISA court require "reasonable articulable suspicion" of association with international terrorism before records are reviewed. It also would set limits on the number of people with access to the data, and set limits on the number of "hops" (contact intermediaries) that can be searched. It would require the NSA to make an annual report of the number of queries made and the number of FBI investigations or probable cause orders issued. The bill would also require intelligence agencies to report violations of law to Congress, require a review once per by the Attorney General of collection procedures, and permit the FISA court to invite independent amicus curiae perspectives on cases. It would require Senate confirmation of appointments of the NSA director and NSA Inspector General. [12]

MSNBC reported that the bill "purports to ban the NSA's controversial bulk collection of communications records under Section 215 of the Patriot Act" but "basically allows the NSA to continue bulk collection." [13] [14] Feinstein defended data collection in her press release, saying that "The threats we face—from terrorism, proliferation and cyber attack, among others—are real, and they will continue. Intelligence is necessary to protect our national and economic security, as well as to stop attacks against our friends and allies around the world." [15]

Response

Senate Intelligence Committee

The Senate Intelligence Committee report recommended the bill, saying that the program was "an effective counterterrorism tool" and "was determined by the Department of Justice in two Administrations and by at least fifteen different judges serving on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) to be lawful." While noting that the committee had encountered inadvertent violations of the law, the majority reported "It remains the case that, through seven years of oversight of this metadata program under Section 215, the Committee has not identified a single case in which a government official engaged in a willful effort to circumvent or violate Section 215 in the conduct of the bulk telephone metadata program." The committee endorsed measures to codify and enhance privacy protections, saying these measures "could not have been enacted absent the declassification of lawful intelligence activities that were, until recently, properly classified, as to do so would have revealed the programs to our adversaries and thereby compromised their effectiveness." However, it condemned the disclosures and said that the leaks "have not exposed government wrongdoing." [16]

In a minority view attached to the report, Senators Ron Wyden, Mark Udall, and Martin Heinrich wrote "this bill would codify the government's authority to collect the phone records of huge numbers of law-abiding Americans, and also to conduct warrantless searches for individual Americans' phone calls and emails. We respectfully but firmly disagree with this approach." Feinstein's response in the report was that the bill "does not provide any new legislative authority with which the government may acquire call records or any other information under Section 215--in fact, it narrows the existing authority for it." [16]

Interest groups

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) urged opposition, calling the bill a "dream come true for the NSA". [14] [17] The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) called the bill a "fake fix" that would "permanently entrench" current surveillance practices. [18] [19] [20]

The ACLU and EFF were among fifty-four "civil liberties and public interest groups" that authored a coalition letter to Congressional leadership urging them to oppose the act. [21]

Media

One area of concern raised by The Guardian , crediting blogger Marcy Wheeler, regards a "backdoor search provision" which could allow domestic U.S. law enforcement agencies warrantless access to the data. A FISA court document declassified in 2011 [22] and a leak by Edward Snowden previously published by the newspaper [23] indicated that generally searches of the database for "U. S. Persons" was not permitted, but contained a provision that:

"While the FAA 702 minimization procedures approved on 3 October 2011 now allow for use of certain United States person names and identifiers as query terms when reviewing collected FAA 702 data, analysts may NOT/NOT [not repeat not] implement any USP [US persons] queries until an effective oversight process has been developed by NSA and agreed to by DOJ/ODNI [Office of the Director of National Intelligence]."

According to The Guardian, Section 6 of the Act "blesses" such a procedure, permitting intelligence agencies to search "the contents of communications" collected overseas for U.S. persons provided that the purpose pertained to "foreign intelligence information". [24] The provision was also criticized by Senator Ron Wyden, who said that the bill "would give intelligence agencies wide latitude to conduct warrantless searches for American phone calls and emails", instead supporting the USA Freedom Act by Senators Patrick Leahy and F. James Sensenbrenner that would require a search warrant to obtain the information. Sensenbrenner called Feinstein's bill an effort "for the first time in our country's history to allow unrestrained spying on the American people." [25]

See also

Related Research Articles

United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court U.S. federal court

The United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court is a U.S. federal court established under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) to oversee requests for surveillance warrants against foreign spies inside the United States by federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Such requests are made most often by the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Congress created FISA and its court as a result of the recommendations by the U.S. Senate's Church Committee.

Dianne Feinstein American politician (born 1933)

Dianne Goldman Berman Feinstein is an American politician who serves as the senior United States senator from California, a seat she has held since 1992. A member of the Democratic Party, she was mayor of San Francisco from 1978 to 1988.

Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act 1978 United States federal law

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 is a United States federal law that establishes procedures for the physical and electronic surveillance and the collection of "foreign intelligence information" between "foreign powers" and "agents of foreign powers" suspected of espionage or terrorism. The Act created the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) to oversee requests for surveillance warrants by federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies. It has been repeatedly amended since the September 11 attacks.

Project MINARET

Project MINARET was a domestic espionage project operated by the National Security Agency (NSA), which, after intercepting electronic communications that contained the names of predesignated US citizens, passed them to other government law enforcement and intelligence organizations. Intercepted messages were disseminated to the FBI, CIA, Secret Service, Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (BNDD), and the Department of Defense. The project was a sister project to Project SHAMROCK.

Project SHAMROCK was the sister project to Project MINARET, an espionage exercise started in August 1945. Project MINARET involved the accumulation of all telegraphic data that entered or exited the United States. The Armed Forces Security Agency (AFSA) and its successor, the National Security Agency (NSA), were given direct access to daily microfilm copies of all incoming, outgoing, and transiting telegrams via the Western Union and its associates RCA and ITT. NSA did the operational interception, and, if there was information that would be of interest to other intelligence agencies, the material was passed to them. Intercepted messages were disseminated to the FBI, CIA, Secret Service, Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (BNDD), and the Department of Defense. No court authorized the operation and there were no warrants.

NSA warrantless surveillance (2001–2007) Part of the Terrorist Surveillance Program

NSA warrantless surveillance — also commonly referred to as "warrantless-wiretapping" or "-wiretaps" — refers to the surveillance of persons within the United States, including U.S. citizens, during the collection of notionally foreign intelligence by the National Security Agency (NSA) as part of the Terrorist Surveillance Program. In late 2001, the NSA was authorized to monitor, without obtaining a FISA warrant, the phone calls, Internet activity, text messages and other communication involving any party believed by the NSA to be outside the U.S., even if the other end of the communication lay within the U.S.

Terrorist Surveillance Program NSA program

The Terrorist Surveillance Program was an electronic surveillance program implemented by the National Security Agency (NSA) of the United States in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks. "The program, which enabled the United States to secretly track billions of phone calls made by millions of U.S. citizens over a period of decades, was a blueprint for the NSA surveillance that would come after it, with similarities too close to be coincidental". It was part of the President's Surveillance Program, which was in turn conducted under the overall umbrella of the War on Terrorism. The NSA, a signals intelligence agency, implemented the program to intercept al Qaeda communications overseas where at least one party is not a U.S. person. In 2005, The New York Times disclosed that technical glitches resulted in some of the intercepts including communications which were "purely domestic" in nature, igniting the NSA warrantless surveillance controversy. Later works, such as James Bamford's The Shadow Factory, described how the nature of the domestic surveillance was much, much more widespread than initially disclosed. In a 2011 New Yorker article, former NSA employee Bill Binney said that his colleagues told him that the NSA had begun storing billing and phone records from "everyone in the country."

<i>Hepting v. AT&T</i>

Hepting v. AT&T is a United States class action lawsuit filed in January 2006 by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) against the telecommunications company AT&T, in which the EFF alleges that AT&T permitted and assisted the National Security Agency (NSA) in unlawfully monitoring the communications of the United States, including AT&T customers, businesses and third parties whose communications were routed through AT&T's network, as well as voice over IP telephone calls routed via the Internet.

The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) is an independent agency within the executive branch of the United States government, established by Congress in 2004 to advise the President and other senior executive branch officials to ensure that concerns with respect to privacy and civil liberties in the United States are appropriately considered in the development and implementation of all laws, regulations, and executive branch policies related to terrorism.

MAINWAY The NSAs database of telephone calls

MAINWAY is a database maintained by the United States' National Security Agency (NSA) containing metadata for hundreds of billions of telephone calls made through the four largest telephone carriers in the United States: AT&T, SBC, BellSouth and Verizon.

Protect America Act of 2007

The Protect America Act of 2007 (PAA),, is a controversial amendment to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that was signed into law by U.S. President George W. Bush on August 5, 2007. It removed the warrant requirement for government surveillance of foreign intelligence targets "reasonably believed" to be outside the United States. The FISA Amendments Act of 2008 reauthorized many provisions of the Protect America Act in Title VII of FISA.

History of the Patriot Act

The history of the USA PATRIOT Act involved many parties who opposed and supported the legislation, which was proposed, enacted and signed into law 45 days after the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001. The USA PATRIOT Act, though approved by large majorities in the U.S. Senate and House of Representative, was controversial, and parts of the law were invalidated or modified by successful legal challenges over constitutional infringements to civil liberties. The Act had several sunset provisions, most reauthorized by the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005 and the USA PATRIOT Act Additional Reauthorizing Amendments Act. Both reauthorizations incorporated amendments to the original USA PATRIOT Act, and other federal laws.

Political positions of Dianne Feinstein Full coverage of the policies of a US politician

Dianne Feinstein is the current senior senator in the U.S. Senate representing California. Prior to her time in the Senate, she ran for Governor of California, and was Mayor of San Francisco. Feinstein tends to be seen as a moderate in the Senate. She has worked to ban civilian ownership of some types of firearm, and to gain passage of the California Desert Protection Act to preserve wilderness. She voted to authorize the use of military force in Iraq in 2002, and has stated that she is a supporter of the Patriot Act.

Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 Amendments Act of 2008 United States Law

The FISA Amendments Act of 2008, also called the FAA and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 Amendments Act of 2008, is an Act of Congress that amended the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. It has been used as the legal basis for surveillance programs disclosed by Edward Snowden in 2013, including PRISM.

PRISM Mass surveillance program run by the NSA

PRISM is a code name for a program under which the United States National Security Agency (NSA) collects internet communications from various U.S. internet companies. The program is also known by the SIGAD US-984XN. PRISM collects stored internet communications based on demands made to internet companies such as Google LLC under Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 to turn over any data that match court-approved search terms. Among other things, the NSA can use these PRISM requests to target communications that were encrypted when they traveled across the internet backbone, to focus on stored data that telecommunication filtering systems discarded earlier, and to get data that is easier to handle.

Reactions to global surveillance disclosures

The global surveillance disclosure released to media by Edward Snowden has caused tension in the bilateral relations of the United States with several of its allies and economic partners as well as in its relationship with the European Union. In August 2013, U.S. President Barack Obama announced the creation of "a review group on intelligence and communications technologies" that would brief and later report to him. In December, the task force issued 46 recommendations that, if adopted, would subject the National Security Agency (NSA) to additional scrutiny by the courts, Congress, and the president, and would strip the NSA of the authority to infiltrate American computer systems using "backdoors" in hardware or software. Geoffrey R. Stone, a White House panel member, said there was no evidence that the bulk collection of phone data had stopped any terror attacks.

The Fourth Amendment Protection Acts, are a collection of state legislation aimed at withdrawing state support for bulk data (metadata) collection and ban the use of warrant-less data in state courts. They are proposed nullification laws that, if enacted as law, would prohibit the state governments from co-operating with the National Security Agency, whose mass surveillance efforts are seen as unconstitutional by the proposals' proponents. Specific examples include the Kansas Fourth Amendment Preservation and Protection Act and the Arizona Fourth Amendment Protection Act. The original proposals were made in 2013 and 2014 by legislators in the American states of Utah, Washington, Arizona, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and California. Some of the bills would require a warrant before information could be released, whereas others would forbid state universities from doing NSA research or hosting NSA recruiters, or prevent the provision of services such as water to NSA facilities.

USA Freedom Act U.S. law

The USA Freedom Act is a U.S. law enacted on June 2, 2015, that restored and modified several provisions of the Patriot Act, which had expired the day before. The act imposes some new limits on the bulk collection of telecommunication metadata on U.S. citizens by American intelligence agencies, including the National Security Agency. It also restores authorization for roving wiretaps and tracking lone wolf terrorists. The title of the act is a ten-letter backronym that stands for Uniting and Strengthening America by Fulfilling Rights and Ensuring Effective Discipline Over Monitoring Act of 2015.

Proposed reforms of mass surveillance by the United States

Proposed reforms of mass surveillance by the United States are a collection of diverse proposals offered in response to the Global surveillance disclosures of 2013.

Barack Obama on mass surveillance Overview of the statements of former U.S. president Barack Obama on mass surveillance

U.S. president Barack Obama has received widespread criticism due to his support of government surveillance. President Obama had released many statements on mass surveillance as a result.

References

  1. ↑ "S.1631 -- FISA Improvements Act of 2013 (Placed on Calendar Senate - PCS)". Library of Congress (THOMAS). 2013-11-12. Archived from the original on 2016-02-04. Retrieved 2014-01-24.
  2. ↑ Spencer Ackerman in Washington (2013-11-15). "Feinstein promotes bill to strengthen NSA's hand on warrantless searches | World news". theguardian.com. Retrieved 2014-01-23.
  3. ↑ Julie Pace (2014-01-16). "For Obama, NSA review a quest for public trust". Associated Press.
  4. ↑ Kevin Johnson (2013-09-26). "Lawmakers debate how to change NSA surveillance program". USA Today.
  5. ↑ Ryan Gallagher (2013-10-29). "U.S. Lawmakers Launch Assault on NSA Domestic Snooping". Slate.
  6. ↑ "Five Reactions To Dianne Feinstein Finally Finding Something About The NSA To Get Angry About". Techdirt. 2013-10-29. Retrieved 2014-01-23.
  7. ↑ "Feinstein Statement on Intelligence Collection of Foreign Leaders - Press Releases - News Room - United States Senator Dianne Feinstein". Feinstein.senate.gov. 2012-12-05. Retrieved 2014-01-23.
  8. ↑ "How Could Dianne Feinstein Not Have Seen The Report Laying Out NSA Abuses?". Techdirt. 2013-08-16. Retrieved 2014-01-23.
  9. ↑ "Senate Intelligence Committee Rejects A Bunch Of Attempts To Amend Dianne Feinstein's Fake NSA Reform Bill". Techdirt. 2013-11-15. Retrieved 2014-01-23.
  10. ↑ "Senate Intelligence Committee Approves FISA Improvements Act - Press Releases - News Room - United States Senator Dianne Feinstein". Feinstein.senate.gov. 2012-12-05. Retrieved 2014-01-23.
  11. ↑ "Committee Reports - 113th Congress (2013-2014) - Senate Report 113-119". Thomas.loc.gov. Archived from the original on 2016-02-04. Retrieved 2014-01-23.
  12. ↑ Dianne Feinstein (2013-10-31). "Senate Intelligence Committee Approves FISA Improvements Act".
  13. ↑ Adam Serwer (2013-03-05). "Feinstein gives the NSA what it wants". MSNBC. Retrieved 2014-01-23.
  14. 1 2 Koebler, Jason (2014-01-15). "The NSA's Biggest Supporter Is Worried About Drone Privacy Issues | Motherboard". Motherboard.vice.com. Archived from the original on 2014-01-26. Retrieved 2014-01-23.
  15. ↑ Brian Feldman (2013-11-01). "Senate Intelligence Approves New Surveillance Rules". The Wire.
  16. 1 2 "S. Rept. 113-119 - FISA Improvements Act of 2013". 2013-11-12.
  17. ↑ https://www.aclu.org/blog/national-seurity-technology-and-liberty/sen-dianne-feinsteins-nsa-reforms-bad-privacy-bad . Retrieved January 23, 2014.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)[ dead link ]
  18. ↑ Jack Bouboushian (2013-11-13). "Senate's Bill Is a 'Fake Fix' to Domestic Spying". Courthouse News Service.
  19. ↑ "Sen. Dianne Feinsteins New NSA Bill Will Codify and Extend Mass Surveillance of Americans". EFF.org. 2013-10-31.
  20. ↑ "Take Action | Electronic Frontier Foundation". Action.eff.org. Retrieved 2014-01-23.
  21. ↑ Access, Advocacy for Principled Action in Government, AIDS Policy Project, American Civil Liberties Union, American Library Association, Amicus, Arab American Institute, Bill of Rights Defense Committee, Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law School, Campaign for Liberty, Center for Democracy and Technology, Center for Rights, Charity & Security Network, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), The Constitution Project, Council on American-Islamic Relations, CREDO Mobile, Cyber Privacy Project, Defending Dissent Foundation, Demand Progress, DownsizeDC.org, Electronic Frontier Foundation, F2C: Freedom to Connect, Fight for the Future, Firedoglake, Floor64, Free Press Action Fund, Free Software Foundation, Freedom of the Press Foundation, Government Accountability Project, Greenpeace USA, Human Rights Watch, InFo - The Foundation for Innovation and Internet Freedom, Liberty Coalition, Media Alliance, Media Mobilizing Project, Montgomery County Civil Rights Coalition, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, National Coalition Against Censorship, New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute, OpenMedia International, OpenTheGovernment.org, Participatory Politics Foundation, PEN American Center, PolitiHacks, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Project On Government Oversight, Public Knowledge, reddit, RootsAction.org, TechFreedom, The Rutherford Institute, and ThoughtWorks (2013-12-18). "54 Civil Liberties and Public Interest Organizations Oppose the FISA Improvements Act | Electronic Frontier Foundation". Eff.org. Retrieved 2014-01-23.{{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  22. ↑ "[redacted] Memorandum Opinion" (PDF). United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. 2011-08-03.
  23. ↑ James Ball; Spencer Ackerman (2013-08-09). "NSA loophole allows warrantless search for US citizens' emails and phone calls". The Guardian.
  24. ↑ Spencer Ackerman (2013-11-15). "Feinstein promotes bill to strengthen NSA's hand on warrantless searches". The Guardian.
  25. ↑ Robert Scheer (2013-11-19). "These Lawmakers Have a Plan to Rein In NSA Spying". The Nation.
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