Co-Author of Patriot Act To Unveil Legislation To Limit the NSA's Surveillance Powers
Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) says the powers have been abused
The conservative Republican who co-authored America's Patriot Act is preparing to unveil bipartisan legislation that would dramatically curtail the domestic surveillance powers it gives to intelligence agencies.
Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner, who worked with president George W Bush to give more power to US intelligence agencies after the September 11 terrorist attacks, said the intelligence community had misused those powers by collecting telephone records on all Americans, and claimed it was time "to put their metadata program out of business".
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This is actually huge and I cannot wait to read the legislation once it’s published. An actual bipartisan effort — Sensenbrenner and Conyers teaming up in the House and Leahy and Paul teaming up in the Senate — to dramatically reform the NSA and the FISA Court.
Likely adding a further layer of bureaucracy (will be called “oversight” for PR purposes) to shroud the actual activities of the agency and court in a cloak of faux legitimacy.