End the NSA’s collection of phone data

[Commentary] Once in a great while, House Republicans get it right. So let me praise them for leading a bipartisan effort to curtail the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of data on the phone calls of innocent Americans.

The USA Freedom Act, which the House passed this month by an overwhelming 338 to 88 vote, would end the NSA’s vast effort to compile phone call “metadata.” I agree with Sen Rand Paul (R-KY) that the bill passed by the House doesn’t go far enough to restore our privacy. But it is light-years better than what Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) wants, which is to allow the blanket surveillance to continue pretty much as is. This is an issue on which progressives and libertarian-minded conservatives find common ground — and shared passion. Following the 9/11 attacks, our elected officials exchanged a measure of our liberty for the promise, or the illusion, of greater security. It was a hasty and foolish bargain. President Barack Obama has promised to reform the metadata program, but he didn’t go far enough. It should just be ended. Any other secret reinterpretations of our laws must be brought to light. Kafka needs to be put back on the fiction shelf, where he belongs.