The House Judiciary Committee will debate a new measure allowing the bulk collection of personal records by the National Security Agency to “sunset” at the end of May. The bulk collection would be replaced by a new system that allows the government to seek data on specific individuals—or potentially specific businesses—but only after they argue the need before a secret court.
To obtain telephone, email, or related data, the government must designate a “specific selection term,” such as an email address or telephone number, that the government can prove is linked to a threat. It would no longer be able to sweep up millions of records and then cull through the ones it has for specific matches.
The bill would also require—for the first time—that certain legal opinions from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court become declassified. This measure is meant in part to prevent the government from winning controversial and secret legal opinions that expand intelligence programs. It also would make it easier for companies to challenge gag orders the government often obtains when it demands information through subpoena-like “National Security Letters,” known as NSLs.
