New Bill Would Repeal Patriot Act

schwit1 points out a new piece of bipartisan legislation that aims to repeal the Patriot Act and the FISA Amendments Act, which the NSA has used to justify broad domestic surveillance. House Representatives Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Mark Pocan (D-WI) introduced the bill yesterday, calling it the Surveillance State Repeal Act (PDF). Pocan said, "This isn't just tinkering around the edges. This is a meaningful overhaul of the system, getting rid of essentially all parameters of the Patriot Act." The bill also attempts to dramatically strengthen whistleblower protections, so situations like Edward Snowden's and Thomas Drake's don't happen in the future. This legislation is not expected to get the support of Congressional leaders, but supporters hope it will at least inspire some debate about several provisions of the Patriot Act coming up for renewal in June.

Comments

Do what you can to support this

[sasparillascott]

If you want the surveillance state rolled back, do what you can to support this - take a couple of minutes and e-mail your U.S. House Representative:

http://www.house.gov/represent...

The more public support it appears this gains, the more likely it is that we can get some push back on our road to total surveillance. Much better than just saying it's got no chance and not doing anything.

Re:Do what you can to support this

[mikehilly]

Here is the text of the email I used - please write your representative today!

I strongly urge you to support the Surveillance State Repeal Act that is being proposed by Reps. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.). We need smarter protections in place on both sides of this issue and this Act is a step in the right direction. Protecting our country is important, but we can't sacrifice our freedom to achieve our goals. Please take a stand for the freedom our nation was founded on and work with other representatives to achieve a safe and free nation we can all be proud to call home.

Let them know

[Bob the Super Hamste]

Let your congress critter know you want them to support this bill. If you don't know who is yours you can find them here and from their page send them an e-mail or get the number to call their DC or local office. I have already sent an e-mail to my worthless war hawk nuclear football carrying congress critter but I suspect that it will fall on deaf ears. I also contacted my senators but don't expect much from either of them as one avoids controversy like the plague and the other has been hanging low for a while.

Re:Let them know

[Anonymous Coward]

Let your congress critter know you want them to support this bill. If you don't know who is yours you can find them here [house.gov] and from their page send them an e-mail or get the number to call their DC or local office. I have already sent an e-mail to my worthless war hawk nuclear football carrying congress critter but I suspect that it will fall on deaf ears. I also contacted my senators but don't expect much from either of them as one avoids controversy like the plague and the other has been hanging low for a while.

And when you do (not if you do, because you are going to contact your representatives on this), frame your concerns accordingly. Framing means to give your rep a reason to support the bill that agrees with his or her beliefs, and that they can justify to their lobbyists.

If your rep leans left on social issues or military issues, remind them about Hoover's FBI and the Church Commission during the Vietnam era. If your rep has a "D" behind his name, remind them of Nixon and the original campaign of dirty tricks whereby his advisors attempted to eavesdrop on his opponents. If your rep is gay, remind them of the days when being outed was a career-ender.

If your rep has an "R" behind their name or is hawkish on national security, remind them that every backdoor we leave open (or demand be built in!) for the use of our spies is a backdoor that can be exploited by Chinese and Russian spies. If your rep is in any tech-heavy are regardless of "D" or "R", and/or if they lean right on business issues, remind them of the impact on the business community, such as Cisco's drop in sales that has been partially attributed to the reluctance of foreign customers to purchase from US vendors. America's economy cannot grow unless American companies can sell American products to the world. Americans can't get jobs unless the world is willing to purchase American hardware, software, and host its data on American services.

There are many good reasons to repeal the USAPATRIOT Act. Some are about civil rights and not repeating the mistakes of the past. Some are about preserving our freedoms for the future. Some are about business competitiveness. Some are about making us more secure from foreign spies. Frame your concerns in a manner that your representative won't dismiss out of hand.

Surveillance State Repeal Act (H.R. 1466)

[Anonymous Coward]

Somewhere in this thread the question was asked about how to reference this bill when contacting your reps. It took some digging but I found the H.R. Number.

"Surveillance State Repeal Act (H.R. 1466)"

Have fun.

USA PATRIOT Act is an Acronym, Not a Name

[eepok]

Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing the Required Tools for Intercepting and Obstructing Terrorism.

It's a hi' falootin' acronym, so it need to be capitalized. (http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-107publ56/pdf/PLAW-107publ56.pdf)