The Hill - OVERNIGHT TECH: Obama administration, House Intelligence leaders unveil NSA reform plans

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By Kate Tummarello and Julian Hattem

The White House's proposed legislation, which has yet to be formally unveiled, would have phone companies store records about people's phone calls and allow government agents to search the database with a court order.

THE LEDE: Lawmakers looking for an overhaul of the National Security Agency's bulk collection of records about people's phone calls expressed support about President Obama's plan to end the collection on Tuesday.
Some criticized the fact that the administration's plan only addresses the controversial phone metadata program.

"The President's proposal, as described, would require intelligence agencies to get court approval before obtaining phone records, but the Obama proposal is only limited to phone records," Harley Geiger, senior counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology, said in a statement.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said he welcomes "this apparently modest step in the right direction" but sees a need for further reform, including at the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which oversees the government surveillance programs.

"The significance of the plan really depends on the details, which have not yet fully been made public, but I applaud this effort to rationalize and restrict the excessively broad collection of personal data," he told The Hill.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, defended the president's plans. While there is "certainly" more to be done on the broad issue of surveillance, "the fact that the administration's proposal only goes to telephone metadata I don't view as the end of the debate," he said.

"I think the administration is probably open to limiting the bulk collection of other forms of data," such as data about online communications, he said, adding that he wants "the administration and Congress ... to curtail bulk collection more generally."

Like the White House proposal, the bill unveiled by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and ranking member Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.) would also shift the database out of government hands, but would not require court approval before searching it. Reformers raised concerns about the lack of court oversight in the bill but applauded the lawmakers' effort to rein in the program.

Schiff said the Intelligence Committee leaders' bill should require members of the intelligence community to get court approval before searching through the data.

"There's no reason not to go to the court first," he said, noting the carveout for emergency circumstances. "You still get all the information you need to protect the country."

The lawmakers' proposal would be "one step forward ten steps back, and might be, at the end of the day, a net negative for civil liberties," said Michelle Richardson, legislative counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union.

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