Snowden says new proposals for reform are 'a turning point.' Snowden effect: Reforms proposed

Nine months after the world learned his name, Edward Snowden and his leaks made their biggest splash yet in the capital Tuesday.

NSA reform efforts as a result of his surveillance revelations moved closer to reality as reports surfaced of a coalescing White House plan to end the government’s bulk collection of American phone records. Neither that proposal nor a competing effort from the House Intelligence Committee have moved forward legislatively, and it will take time to see what, if anything, sticks. But their existence alone indicates that a major shift to the most controversial program revealed by Snowden could eventually be a reality.


“This is a turning point, and it marks the beginning of a new effort to reclaim our rights from the NSA and restore the public’s seat at the table of government,” Snowden himself said in a statement.

A White House proposal, which remains under wraps, and a House bill would put in place a new system wherein phone companies hold records instead of the NSA. Neither proposal is perfect, privacy backers said, but the lack of new rules that require phone companies to retain data for longer than they do now is critical. Such language would have been panned by the telecommunications industry and civil liberties groups alike.

“It’s definitely a touchdown for privacy advocates,” said Kevin Bankston, policy director at the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute. “But we’re still in the first quarter of the game.”

The developments, while unfinished, follow a roller coaster ride of reform efforts over the past year. The revelations united liberal Democrats and conservative libertarians in opposition to what they saw as broad government overreach and a violation of privacy — but the drip-drip of stories about NSA activity was unable to carry a symbolic vote in the House last July to curb NSA funding.

But privacy groups now feel closer to real action. President Barack Obama committed to ending bulk phone data collection during a January speech, and his own intelligence review group declared the need for reform in December. This week’s proposal — in which Obama said he is “confident” — is formally due Friday and will suggest how to practically implement the changes.

“We never had any real information about how these programs were used until now,” ACLU legislative counsel Michelle Richardson said. “Reform efforts were stymied by a lack of information. The Snowden leaks really dislodged those efforts.”

That doesn’t mean the dual proposals come without questions. Bankston said one big problem is that the administration plan treats only the symptoms of the intelligence overreach exposed by Snowden because it leaves open the possibility for other kinds of bulk data collection by the government.

And the House bill, backed by Reps. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.), would allow intelligence agencies to get data without first getting the go-ahead from a court — a separate concern raised by some, including the Center for Democracy & Technology.

But lawmakers on Capitol Hill expressed interest in the White House’s proposal, even if they indicated that the details of the plan would need to be reviewed.

“It’s closer to what I envisioned, according to what’s in the papers,” said Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), who’s the chief steward of another NSA reform bill in the Senate. “Their current program is unsustainable.”

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) called the plan a “worthy effort” and committed to holding a hearing on both the administration’s and House’s suggestions. The Senate Intelligence Committee’s top Republican, Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, said he had briefly discussed the administration’s plan and was “looking forward to dialoguing with them.”

“I think there are gonna be parts of it we’ll agree with, parts where we’ll likely not,” he said.

Though some privacy hawks in Congress didn’t mince words.

“What you’re hearing is that this is the start of the end of dragnet surveillance in America. That’s the bottom line,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who added that he spoke with the White House “at length” last night.

At the same time, there’s no guarantee that Congress will approve either plan — or that it will do so this year. The government’s statutory authority to operate the current phone records collection program, Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act, expires at the beginning of June 2015.

But for now, privacy advocates hope the government will work fast to implement the change. An order from the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court authorizing the current bulk collection expires on Friday, but the Department of Justice is expected to seek a reauthorization of the program for an additional 90 days.

In Silicon Valley, technology companies — which say they have felt the brunt of public outrage from the Snowden revelations — reacted cautiously to both proposals, highlighting that they envision reform beyond the proposals unveiled this week.

“We will continue working with both Congress and the administration to advance meaningful legislative reform as set forth in our principles — specifically, we support reform that prohibits bulk data collection of Internet communications, promotes transparency, avoids conflicting international laws, and respects the free flow of information globally,” the Reform Government Surveillance coalition said in a statement. The group’s members include Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Twitter and other firms.

Phone companies — the firms most likely to be affected by any regime change — stayed silent on the proposals.

Tony Romm, Erin Mershon, Jessica Meyers and Brooks Boliek contributed to this report.