DelBene: Second Circuit Decision on NSA Bulk Collection Welcome Development

Today, Congresswoman Suzan DelBene (WA-01) applauded the Second Circuit's unanimous ruling that the National Security Agency's (NSA) bulk collection of phone records is illegal. The court found that the government's interpretation of Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act to permit bulk collection of Americans' phone records has been far beyond the scope of what the law intended or allows.

"Today's ruling by the Second Circuit is a welcome development, and I hope that proponents of a clean reauthorization of the PATRIOT Act will end their grandstanding and take note," DelBene said. "The court has affirmed what many of us already knew -- Congress never intended to allow bulk collection of Americans' phone records, and the law does not permit it. I hope today's decision will bring us one step closer to putting an end to bulk collection once and for all."

Last week, Congresswoman DelBene joined members of the House Judiciary Committee in introducing bipartisan legislation to rein in the NSA's domestic surveillance program and protect Americans' privacy by creating greater transparency, oversight and accountability.

The USA FREEDOM Act (H.R. 2048) would end bulk data collection under Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act, and reform the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) courts and increase transparency by creating a panel of experts that will provide guidance to the courts on issues such as privacy and civil liberties, and by requiring all novel and significant FISA court opinions to be public. The bill also provides options for companies to publicly disclose information about requests they receive from the government, an important reform that DelBene lead the push for in 2014.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is continuing to push for a five-year reauthorization of the PATRIOT Act, which the government has used to secretly obtain personal data from U.S. citizens, without any reforms to the controversial program.

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