Rep. Darrell Issa, Who Voted Against Amash Amendment, Now Wants To Bring It Back For Another Vote

Politics

from the flip-flopping dept

When the Amash Amendment to defund aspects of the NSA’s spying was narrowly defeated, one of the somewhat unfortunate no votes was Rep. Darrell Issa, who has proven to be really good on important tech issues. Of course, since that vote, there have been a series of increasingly stunning revelations about just how deep the NSA’s surveillance efforts go, and quite a few Representatives have suggested that they were totally unaware of the extent of the surveillance. Others have suggested that if the Amash Amendment was voted on again today, the vote would be different.

So, it’s interesting to see that Rep. Issa is asking for exactly that:

In recent weeks, concerning reports have been made public about the scope and depth of the National Security Agency’s (NSA) surveillance programs and serious legal violations in those programs. In particular, the recent declassification of a 2011 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) ruling has revealed that the Agency unlawfully gathered and held the contents of emails for tens of thousands of Americans between 2008 and 2011. Additionally, there are concerning allegations that officials at the NSA may have misrepresented to the FISC the scope of a collection program conducted under Section 702 of the ISA Amendments Act.

Prior to earlier votes on the House floor on amendments to limit NSA intelligence gathering programs, members of Congress were given assurances that there would be a substantive legislative review of their scope and function. Now that it has been publicly acknowledged that the communications of Americans were included in the NSA’s data collection program, likely violating their Fourth Amendment rights, Congress must respond in a manner that both increases the transparency of the Agency’s programs and reinforces the constitutional protections of our citizens.

Now that the House has come back into session, I respectfully request that you move legislation to the floor, including the language of the Amash Amendment that was narrowly defeated on July 26, 2013 during debate on the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, as quickly as possible. Government actions that violate the Constitution cannot be tolerated and Congress must act to ensure the NSA and the rest of the intelligence community permanently cease such acts and hold the appropriate individuals accountable.

This is a fairly surprising move. While there have been a number of other bills offered up in response to the NSA’s activities, to have a highly visible member of Congress who voted against the Amash Amendment suddenly ask for it to be brought to the floor again suggests that the tiny majority that the NSA had in the House on this issue is long gone. It’s also noteworthy that Issa directly notes that the NSA’s actions “likely” violate the 4th Amendment. While plenty of people outside of Congress have been pointing this out, people inside Congress have mostly been tiptoeing around the Constitutional issue.

Filed Under: amash amendment, darrell issa, justin amash, nsa, nsa surveillance, patriot act, section 215