Senators repackage surveillance bills as comprehensive reform

Four Senators who had been working separately to reform US surveillance programs announced that they are introducing a comprehensive reform bill. The reform package is “the most comprehensive, bipartisan intelligence reform proposal since the disclosures” earlier this year, Sen Ron Wyden (D-OR) said of the reform package being introduced by himself and Sens. Mark Udall (D-CO), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Rand Paul (R-KY).

The bill will combine elements of legislation that had been pushed by the four lawmakers. It would ban the bulk collections of electronic communications and telephone data, require the intelligence community to get a search warrant before searching for the communications of innocent Americans, reform the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) to include a constitutional advocate, allow people to challenge the constitutionality of surveillance programs in open court and bring more transparency to the surveillance programs. By introducing the bill, the senators are hoping to shape the debate. As the Senate Intelligence and Judiciary Committees are slated to examine surveillance programs, “we’re launching the debate with an actual bill” to set the bar high on surveillance reform, Sen Wyden said.