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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Eye On Boise

Labrador, Simpson split on USA Freedom Act, which extends, revises Patriot Act

The U.S. House has passed HR 2048, the USA Freedom Act, on a 338-88 vote, with Idaho’s members splitting – 2nd District Rep. Mike Simpson voted with the majority in favor, and 1st District Rep. Raul Labrador voted in the minority against the bill. The measure, which extends many parts of the 2001 USA Patriot Act, also ends the mass collection of Americans’ phone data, which backers touted as its biggest selling point. But Labrador said it didn’t go far enough, particularly after a 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling last week ruled the mass collection illegal.

“While supporters of HR 2048 claimed that it made necessary reforms to protect privacy and security, the changes did not sufficiently protect Americans’ civil liberties,” Labrador said in a statement. “I offered amendments to strengthen civil liberties protections in the Judiciary Committee, but they were rejected. Later, the Rules Committee refused to consider these amendments on the House floor. Ultimately, I could not support the bill in its current form. Now, I urge my colleagues in the Senate to continue fighting for privacy rights and national security when they take up the bill in the coming days.”

The bill faces an uncertain fate in the Senate; a version of it passed the House last year, but was rejected by the Senate. The National Security Agency’s authority to obtain phone metadata, which was granted by Section 215 of the Patriot Act, expires with the rest of the act on June 1 if Congress doesn’t extend it. HR 2048 specifies that telephone companies would keep the data, rather than turning it over, unless they receive a court order naming a specific person or account. It also lifts some of the secrecy around NSA requests. The Patriot Act was last renewed in 2011, when President Barack Obama signed the extension bill just before the act was to expire at midnight.



Betsy Z. Russell
Betsy Z. Russell joined The Spokesman-Review in 1991. She currently is a reporter in the Boise Bureau covering Idaho state government and politics, and other news from Idaho's state capital.

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