Senator Coons urges review of surveillance activities

Senator Coons was one of nine members of the Senate Judiciary Committee to write to the inspector general of the intelligence community on Monday to request a full-scale review of the use of surveillance activities. What's more: they requested the results of this review be made public.

“We urge you to conduct comprehensive reviews of these authorities and provide a full accounting of how these authorities are being implemented across the Intelligence Community,” the senators wrote. “The IC Inspector General was created in 2010 for this very purpose.  Providing a publicly available summary of the findings and conclusions of these reviews will help promote greater oversight, transparency, and public accountability.”

This isn't the first time Senator Coons has tried to increase the transparency of our nation's surveillance activities. 

Ahead of his vote against the reauthorization of the FISA Amendments Act in December, Senator Coons spoke on the Senate floor in support of the legislative predecessors to both of these bills. His speech can be viewed and read here.

In July, Senator Coons cosponsored two bills to limit access to Americans' private information under FISA and to add transparency and accountability measures to the courts that govern surveillance activities conducted under FISA.

“Delawareans deserve a full and informed debate about our nation’s intelligence-gathering procedures and their intrusion on our privacy rights,” Senator Coons said. “These procedures certainly have a role to play in keeping our nation safe, but Congress has failed to be an effective check of whether they respect our most cherished privacy protections. These two bills represent a second chance to put in place a better system for oversight and the prevention of abuse of the government’s surveillance authorities.” 

Monday's letter is below: