Defeat for NSA Amendment bill

Narrow defeat for Amash amendment to restrict NSA surveillance

First major challenge to NSA's bulk collection of phone records defeated by only 217 votes to 205 in House of Representatives

the Guardian,

24 July, 2013

The first major legislative challenge to the National Security Agency's bulk collection of phone records from millions of Americans was defeated by only a narrow margin on Wednesday, sending a clear signal to the Obama administration that congressional anger about the extent of domestic surveillance is growing.

Despite a concerted lobbying effort by the White House and senior intelligence figures, the attempt to rein in the NSA failed by only 12 votes. The final vote was 205 in favor and 217 against, exposing deep restiveness in Congress over the wisdom and constitutionality of the bulk surveillance on Americans less than two months after the Guardian exposed it thanks to leaks from whistleblower Edward Snowden. A shift of seven votes would have changed the outcome.

Civil libertarians disappointed by the vote promised not to relent in opposing what they consider an unnecessary and unconstitutional violation of Americans' privacy.

The principal author of the effort, Michigan Republican Justin Amash, said he introduced his amendment to the annual Defense Department appropriations bill to "defend the fourth amendment, to defend the privacy of each and every American."

In opposition, the chairman of the House intelligence committee, Mike Rogers of Michigan, asked: "Have we forgotten what happened on September 11?" Swiping at Amash, he asked: "Are we so small we can only look at how many Facebook likes we have?"

Congressman Mac Thornberry, a Texas Republican on the intelligence committee, called the abridgment of the NSA's power "foolhardy," terming it an "overreaction that increases the danger" from terrorism.

The measure, known as the Amash amendment, sought to end the NSA's years-long secret practice of collecting the phone records of millions of Americans unsuspected of any crime or foreign intelligence threat. Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, said the effort dangerously provided the NSA with a "human relationship database," something as or potentially more intrusive than the contents of Americans' phone calls.

Members of Congress of both parties opposed to the bulk NSA surveillance compared it to general warrants issued by the British colonists. The raucous and passionate debate exposed deep divisions in Congress over the propriety of the surveillance, contrary to assertions by the Obama administration and its allies that Congress had already granted its approval for the effort before it became public.

The Obama administration, the intelligence agencies and their allies in Congress made an all-out push to quash the amendment after it unexpectedly made it past the House rules committee late on Monday. They argue that accumulating the phone records of Americans is the only way to discover connections to international terrorism inside the United States. "If you're looking for the needle in the haystack, you have to have the entire haystack to look through," deputy attorney general James Cole testified last week.

For four hours on Tuesday, General Keith Alexander, the director of the NSA, implored legislators that preventing his agency from collecting the phone records on millions of Americans would have dire consequences for national security.

The White House entered the fray on Tuesday night, taking the unusual step of publicly objecting to a proposed amendment to a bill. Hours before the House began consideration of the Amash amendment, the US director of national intelligence, James Clapper, warned legislators that "acting in haste to defund the Fisa business records program risks dismantling an important intelligence tool."

Clapper called for an "open and candid discussion about foreign surveillance authorities and careful consideration of the potential effect of limiting the Intelligence Community's capabilities under these authorities." Earlier this month, Clapper apologized to the Senate intelligence committee for untruthfully testifying in March that the NSA was "not wittingly" collecting data on millions of Americans.

While most contentious House votes in recent years have been marked by partisanship, the Amash amendment crossed party lines. Obama was joined in opposing Amash by seven Republican committee chairmen in the House, the Wall Street Journal, the conservative thinktank the Heritage Foundation, and an array of Bush-era national security officials, some of whom helped design the phone-records collection program.

"Denying the NSA such access to data will leave the nation at risk," read a letter to Congress signed by retired general Michael Hayden, the former NSA director and chief architect of the warrantless surveillance; former attorneys general Alberto Gonzales and Michael Mukasey; former CIA director and House intelligence committee chairman Porter Goss; former director of national intelligence John Negroponte; Freedom House trustee Diana Villers Negroponte; and former National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley.

For his part, Amash, a Republican, was joined by a coalition of libertarian Republicans and progressive Democrats. His amendment's principal Democratic ally was longtime Michigan representative John Conyers, the ranking member of the House judiciary committee. Applause broke out from either side of the party aisle for speakers both for and against the Amash amendment.

Conyers called the amendment an effort merely to "curtail the ongoing dragnet" surveillance, supported by congressman James Sensenbrenner, a Republican and principal sponsor of the Patriot Act under which the NSA claims authority for its bulk phone records surveillance.

"The time has come to stop it," Sensenbrenner said.

Joe Barton, a Texas Republican, said it was "simply wrong" for the NSA, which he called well-intentioned, to "collect the data in the first place of every phone call of every American every day."

Meanwhile, a Democratic leadership announcement of the Amash amendment described the bulk phone records collection program as harvesting data from people "not already subject to an investigation." Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi voted no.

In opposition to the Amash amendment, Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican and Iraq war veteran, said, "Folks, we are at war. You might not like that truth. I wish we were not at war. But it is the truth."

Ahead of the vote, Mike Pompeo, a Kansas Republican, offered a seeming alternative to Amash's amendment, albeit one that "clarified" NSA could collect no content from Americans rather than abridge the NSA phone records collection. It was supported by surveillance hawks to forestall Amash's "knee-jerk" effort, said Dutch Ruppersberger, the top Democrat on the intelligence committee.

It succeeded by a wide margin, having 15 minutes for members to vote. Legislators had only two minutes to vote for the Amash amendment