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

Re:You should title this "Patriot act to be repeal

[rudy_wayne]

No. This should be titled "No chance in hell".

The people who currently control congress are the same people who created the Patriot Act.

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

[PrimaryConsult]

Seriously, if there was ever a time the slashdot effect was needed, it's now.

Apathy towards the workings of our government are what allowed the Patriot Act to last this long, I hope that same apathy can be counted on to keep the "whatever to keep us safe!" crowd from fighting its repeal.

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.

its unlikely to gain any traction

[nimbius]

the Patriot act is affected through the Homeland Security Act, which in turn uses wings of the FBI and CIA to implement various measures but most importantly it uses the Department of Homeland Security. with a quarter of a million people employed and a sixty billion dollar budget, many southern senators and politicians would likely find the bill, or any bill that touches DHS for that matter, toxic. customs and border protection agents, largely composed of veterans who would otherwise find themselves unemployed, make up the bulk of nearly 60,000 employed by the agency. Expect Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico senators to turn a blind eye to this legislation as no one wants to face an election with the fact they voted to axe these jobs, however pointless and destructive.

expect the administration --any administration for that matter-- to object to strengthening whistleblower protection. The laundry list of whistleblowers in federal government whos actions have directly led to their chronic unemployment and ostracization from society is evidence enough that we as a society care more about the idea of american patriotism than the actual functional implementation and repercussions of it.

Re:You should title this "Patriot act to be repeal

[burtosis]

It's ridiculous that we would ship them off to gitmo. What will be done is the two affairs they have had, the business deal under the table last year, his son being gay, the fact that his family has employed illegal immigrants, and the fact he did cocane in college will all be released to the public if he votes the wrong way. Further if he speaks out on this he is revealing state secrets and will be tried in a secret court by secret judges and sentenced to 'pound me in the ass penitentiary' in the most pedestrian sense.
10 years ago I would have called this tin foil hat material, now I'm not so sure.

Re:You should title this "Patriot act to be repeal

[MobSwatter]

The people of WWII Germany had the same opinion in terms of "I don't care as long as I am safe", look where it got them. In 1954 the US began playing with the same things that Hitler did, what you are seeing now are the side effects and obvious brain damage. Soviets played with the same thing and look where they are now. One cannot put the genie back in the bottle but the many could make that conscious choice, but the greed and lust for power will ultimately bring a biblical style ending to it before things will get better.

Re: You should title this "Patriot act to be repea

[gstoddart]

Sorry, but when it lies to Congress about what it's doing ... it's really out of control.

When it spies on the people who oversee it to influence the oversight, it's out of control.

When it formalizes a mechanism of perjury by law enforcement, it's out of control.

When it hides how it uses technologies to perform warrantless wiretaps, it's out of control.

I see no evidence that any has control over these clowns. And if anybody does, nobody knows who that is to have control over them.

So, to you I say, bullshit. The spying apparatus does whatever the fuck it wants, arbitrarily decides when/if the law applies, and keeps doing what they want no matter what they're told.

These people are now quite dangerous to our freedoms and our societies.