Mitch McConnell seeks to limit transparency in surveillance reform bill

The Senate’s top Republican renewed his quest to gut surveillance reform on Monday, this time removing a measure that would disclose major reinterpretations of surveillance law made by a secret court.

Privacy-minded legislators, fresh off what appeared to be a victory after the Senate agreed on Sunday night to advance the USA Freedom Act, said that the latest legislative gambit by Mitch McConnell of Kentucky would leave the public vulnerable to what Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon has called “secret law”.

McConnell’s amendment would strip the bill of its mandate to “make publicly available” novel interpretations of the law before the secret Fisa court – a measure that advocates consider an early warning system to alert Congress and the public of efforts by the intelligence agencies to expand their powers.

Privacy campaigners, some of whom consider the USA Freedom Act to be an insufficient fix for widespread government surveillance, denounced McConnell’s amendment. Some believe it would end up costing the compromise bill its remaining support in the House of Representatives – which would ensure that portions of the Patriot Act that expired at midnight would not be restored, via passage of the USA Freedom Act.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/01/mitch-mcconnell-limit-transparency-usa-freedom-act