{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.heller.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ContentRecord_id=dde88153-ba98-457e-acf3-6c9c7841d811", "Sens. Heller and Frankens Measures to Strengthen Surveillance Transparency Included in NSA Reform Bill", "2014-07-29", "2014", "2014-07", "Republican", "House", "NV", "Dean Heller", "H001041", "www.heller.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "(WASHINGTON, D.C.) - Today, U.S. Sens. Dean Heller (R-NV) and Al Franken (D-MN) announced their measures to increase transparency over government surveillance programs were included in the USA FREEDOM Act, a key NSA reform bill introduced today in the Senate by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT). \r\nBecause of Sens. Heller\u2019s and Franken\u2019s efforts, the USA FREEDOM Act will help give the American people\u00a0the information they\u00a0need to make up their own minds about the nation\u2019s surveillance\u00a0programs.\r\nThe Senators\u2019 transparency provisions force the government to release the number of people who have had their communications information collected under these surveillance programs, and the number of those people who were likely Americans. And they would also give American companies greater flexibility to tell their customers approximately how many of them were caught up in government surveillance requests. Combined, these provisions will give Americans a way to verify for themselves that bulk collection is in fact over. \r\nSaid Sen. Heller, \u201cThe government has grossly overreached with its surveillance practices, and as a result, Americans\u2019 distrust of their own government continues to grow. Congress can take immediate steps to fix that by increasing transparency and improving reporting practices.\u00a0 I\u2019m extremely pleased that my colleagues have been willing to work with me and Senator Franken to include our provisions in the latest draft. More must be done, and the USA Freedom Act is a comprehensive approach that would end bulk data collection practices and help restore privacy rights to our nation\u2019s citizens. I hope that the Senate can move swiftly to vote on this bill.\u201d \r\n\u201cAmericans understand that we need to give due weight to privacy, on the one hand, and national security, on the other,\u201d said Sen. Franken. \u201cBut when they lack even a rough sense of the scope of the government\u2019s surveillance programs, they have no way to know if the government is getting that balance right. There needs to be more transparency. Our provisions will let the American people get the information they need to hold their government accountable.\u201d \r\nSens. Heller and Franken introduced the\u00a0Surveillance Transparency Act\u00a0in 2013\u00a0to\u00a0expand and improve ongoing government reporting about programs under the\u00a0PATRIOT Act\u00a0and the\u00a0Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act\u00a0that have been the subject of controversy. You can read more about it\u00a0here.\u00a0\r\nWhile both the House and Senate versions of the USA FREEDOM Act included transparency provisions modeled after Surveillance Transparency Act, many of these provisions were dropped in the run-up to the House\u2019s passage of the bill. The Senators successfully fought to get them back into the final Senate bill.\r\nSen. Heller is an original cosponsor of the USA FREEDOM Act. He also testified at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law on behalf of the Surveillance Transparency Act of 2013.\r\nSen. Franken, Chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law, is a strong advocate of increased transparency in government surveillance programs. In 2011 and 2012, he cosponsored legislation\u00a0to ensure greater oversight and transparency around federal surveillance programs.\u00a0When these measures did not pass, Sen. Franken voted against reauthorizing key NSA surveillance programs\u00a0created under the PATRIOT Act and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Amendments Act.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.heller.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ContentRecord_id=dde88153-ba98-457e-acf3-6c9c7841d811"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8696550503373146, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}