Chairman Patrick Leahy backs sweeping NSA restrictions

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) strongly endorsed a series of sweeping restrictions on US surveillance programs — from ending the bulk collection of Americans’ phone call logs to creating new oversight mechanisms to keep the National Security Agency (NSA) in check.

As the senator criticized the program, he also pledged to explore “possible structural changes” to the secret court that reviews government surveillance requests. And Chairman Leahy said he planned to work with Republican colleagues in the House to rein in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which governs the NSA’s ability to tap Internet communications as it scours for foreign terror suspects. He previewed his approach, saying Congress must “recalibrate” government surveillance while finding “a way we can discuss publicly the outer bounds” of the NSA’s programs. The senator affirmed his interest in restricting Section 215 under the PATRIOT Act, specifically to prohibit “bulk collection of Americans’ phone records.” He introduced a bill this summer to that effect, and the measure currently has 10 co-sponsors, including Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR), Mike Lee (R-UT) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT). The judges appointed to the FISA Court, Sen. Leahy explained, have taken on a “regulatory role not envisioned in the original version” of the law. And the court, he said, hamstrung by the NSA’s misunderstanding of its own programs or the agency’s misleading statements, hasn’t always been able to conduct meaningful oversight.