Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 22, 2014


Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Donna F. Edwards (MD-4) released the following statement regarding her vote against H.R. 3361, the USA Freedom Act.  The legislation passed the House 303-121.

“After much deliberation, I opposed the USA Freedom Act because I continue to believe it doesn’t strike the necessary balance between protecting our national security and protecting our 4th Amendment rights.  Without question, national security issues are critically important, and I applaud all those who work at the Department of Defense, the National Security Agency, and others for their dedication to duty and professionalism.  We must provide them with the means to gather the information necessary to keep America safe.  However, we cannot allow the pursuit of that goal to infringe on the civil liberties that we, as Americans, hold sacred and fought so hard to defend.   

“Supporters claim this bill ends ‘bulk collection’ of Americans’ data, but the government can still, without probable cause, order all records for ‘area code 301,’ for ‘zip code 20772,’ or even all of the emails for accounts that start with the letter ‘S,’ each without a warrant. In order to achieve the right balance, I believe Congress must: tighten the definition of ‘specific selection term;’ reform Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Amendments Act; require (not simply authorize) the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court to appoint lawyers to argue on behalf of Americans’ privacy rights, instead of the court just hearing from one side before ruling; and allow the controversial Section 215 of the Patriot Act to expire in June 2015, instead of extending it for more than two additional years.  I hope that as the Senate considers its version of NSA reform later this year that we will incorporate some of these much needed changes to restore the Constitutional protections entitled to all Americans.”  

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