USA Freedom Act of 2015 passes House, moves to Senate

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Sens. Mike Lee and Patrick Leahy, Reps. Jim Sensenbrenner, Bob Goodlatte, John Conyers and Jerrold Nadler issued the following statement Thursday urging the Senate to take up and pass the USA Freedom Act of 2015.

Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate have come together in support of historic legislation that protects Americans’ privacy rights and our national security. The House took an important step this week by overwhelmingly approving the USA Freedom Act by a vote of 338-88. The Senate should do the same.

The USA Freedom Act is a carefully crafted compromise that has the support of the intelligence community, technology industry and privacy groups. For this reason, we will not agree to any extension of the NSA’s bulk collection program, which has already been ruled unlawful by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. The Senate should not delay reform again this year. Instead, the Senate should immediately pass the USA Freedom Act.

Lee issued the following statement Wednesday after the House approved the bill:

With the House’s passage of the USA Freedom Act today, the American people are one step closer to having their core civil liberties protected from unconstitutional government surveillance under the USA Patriot Act.

The overwhelming, bipartisan majority in the House affirms last week’s unanimous decision by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, which found that that the National Security Agency’s (NSA)  bulk phone records collection program goes beyond what is authorized under Section 215 of the Patriot Act. Now, the Senate must act.

On April 30, the House Judiciary Committee overwhelmingly approved the USA Freedom Act by a vote of 25-2.

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2 Comments

  • BIG GUY May 16, 2015 at 1:11 pm

    I committed never to vote for Mike Lee after he helped shut down the government a few years ago, but he’s on a bipartisan streak lately. Good show, but I’m still not sure I forgive him.

  • izzymuse May 17, 2015 at 12:24 am

    How about we legalize the US constitution again? Tear off all the modern government regulations, subsidies, and lobbyists to simply get back to the original US documents which should be already protecting our civil rights. Too many career politicians and corrupt lawyers exploiting America over the last 100 years.

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