... [the]federal government’s ability under the Patriot Act to collect information on Americans who are not connected to an ongoing investigation. The bill also requires that secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court opinions be made available to Congress and summaries of the opinions be made available to the public.
That's what the amendment's authors say about it. The amendment has some bipartisan support.
So... what does the Obama administration say about the Amash amendment? Here's Kevin Gosztola of FDL:
(Bolds mine.)President Barack Obama, however, opposes this effort to curtail the power of the NSA. White House spokesperson Jay Carney said, “We oppose the current effort in the House to hastily dismantle one of our Intelligence Community’s counter-terrorism tools.” And, “His blunt approach is not the product of an informed, open, or deliberative process. We urge the House to reject the Amash Amendment, and instead move forward with an approach that appropriately takes into account the need for a reasoned review of what tools can best secure the nation.” (Notice the White House does not mention the name of the Democratic Representative who also introduced the amendment, misrepresenting the bipartisan support for this amendment.)
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"... [N]ot the product of..." Oh, the irony. Do they even see it?
I could be wrong, but I seem to remember that Congress holds hearings and debates bills before they are voted on, which is a lot more discussion than this issue has received when it was a secret program within the Executive branch that only 4 members of Congress knew existed.
ReplyDeleteBryan, more and more, when I look at Barack Obama, I see... not George W. Bush... but Richard Nixon. He must be somewhere grinning an evil grin...
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