releases: https://www.leahy.senate.gov/press/statement-on-hearing-of-the-senate-judiciary-committee-on-reauthorizing-the-usa-freedom-act-of-2015
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
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| https://www.leahy.senate.gov/press/statement-on-hearing-of-the-senate-judiciary-committee-on-reauthorizing-the-usa-freedom-act-of-2015 | Statement On Hearing Of The Senate Judiciary Committee On “Reauthorizing the USA FREEDOM Act of 2015" | 2019-11-06 | 2019 | 2019-11 | Democrat | House | VT | Patrick Leahy | L000174 | www.leahy.senate.gov | legacy | 11.06.19 Statement On Hearing Of The Senate Judiciary Committee On Reauthorizing the USA FREEDOM Act of 2015" This is an important hearingand I amgrateful that Chairman Graham agreed tomy andSenator Lee's request tohold it. I remain proud of our successful effortsin 2015to pass the USA FREEDOM Act. This lawwasthe first major overhaul of government surveillance powers in decades. It addedsignificant privacy protections for the American people.Now we have the opportunity to assess, learn from, and respond to what has happened over the past four years. So what have we learned? We know that thegovernment issued only 14 CDR program orders in 2018, and yet collected over 434 million records relating to over 19 million phone numbers. We know ofat least two incidents ofsignificant over-collection, resulting in the NSA purging allof their recordsand ultimately decommissioning the program. And we know that then-DNI Director Dan Coats acknowledged, even as he requested a permanent reauthorization of all of the authorities granted in USA FREEDOM, that theCDRprogram's relative intelligence valuewasnegligible. Given all that, what DON'T we know? Unfortunately,quite a bit. We are only a month away from these authorities expiring and we don't know what caused the massive over-collection, what companies were responsible, orwhy it was not feasible for theNSA to identify or isolate the improperly produced data. It is not as though Senator Lee and I have not tried to learn the answers to these questions.Almost a year ago, in December 2018, Senator Lee and I wrotealetter to the DNI and Justice Department asking these and other questions. After failing to receive a response, we wrote againin July. Unfortunately, we never received a substantive response toeither of theseletters. Despite this, the government is nowrequesting the permanent reauthorization ofallof the authorities granted in USA FREEDOM, including the CDR program, arguingthat it might eventually be useful and technology might evolve to the point they could collect metadata in compliance with the law. Let me be clear. Maybe someday it will be of some use and Hopefully we will develop technologies to not again violate the law are not appropriate justifications to reauthorizethesepowers. If, at some point in the future, the technology develops to allow for metadata collection that is appropriately limited, follows the rules, and is fair, Congress can revisit the question. Until that time, there is no reason to reauthorize the CDR program. We would be legislating in the dark. I want to again thank the Chairman for holding this hearing and I look forward to the witnesses' testimony. # # # # # Press Contact David Carle: 202-224-3693 Next Article Previous Article | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |