NSA reform bill moves to House floor

A House committee approved a major intelligence reform bill Thursday, setting the stage for a floor debate over US spying. The House Judiciary Committee's 25-2 vote to approve the USA Freedom Act is a major boost for efforts to rein in the National Security Agency (NSA), nearly two years after Edward Snowden’s first leaks about the agency and just a month before a key legislative deadline.

The legislation would effectively end the NSA’s bulk collection of Americans’ phone records, while also extending expiring parts of the Patriot Act until December 2019. “The bill ends bulk collection, it ends secret law,” said Rep Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI), a co-author of the bill and the original author of the Patriot Act. “It increases the transparency of our intelligence community and it does all this without compromising national security.” Congress has until June 1 to reauthorize three expiring portions of the Patriot Act, including the provision that authorizes the NSA to collect bulk records about millions of people’s phone calls. The NSA program collects phone “metadata” -- such as the numbers involved in a phone call and when it occurred -- but not actual content. The bill’s speedy movement through committee after being introduced just on Tuesday signals the blessing of both House leadership and the heads of the Intelligence Committee. There is no sign of major obstacles arising on its path forward in the lower chamber.