Finding the balance between liberty and security

Every once in a while Washington gets it right.  Last week Congress passed, and I voted for, the USA Freedom Act—the most sweeping reform to our intelligence gathering system since 9/11. And, while the bill certainly isn’t perfect, it is a common-sense solution that keeps America safe and protects individual liberty, too.

The events of 9/11 shook America to its core.  It tragically exposed gaps in our surveillance programs and exposed weaknesses in our counterterrorism operations.  Many of us were angry and some were afraid.  One of the country’s legislative answers to assuage that fear was the Patriot Act.  And, while well intentioned, it unfortunately took one of our own government contractors to reveal the National Security Agency was abusing the power granted to it and trampling on the individual liberties we as Americans hold so dear.  

Fourteen years later, the threat of another terrorist attack on American soil remains as real as ever.  However, the USA Freedom Act begins to restore the balance between security and civil liberties that got off-kilter over the last decade.

Most importantly, the USA Freedom Act puts an end to the NSA’s unfettered data collection and phone record storage program once and for all. Within six months after the President’s signature, the NSA will no longer collect and store phone data.  Instead, that data will be held by private companies.  If the government wants access to it, it must obtain a court order first.  In addition, the law prohibits the collection of any metadata collected from large-scale data grabs from an entire state, city, or zip code. 

The USA Freedom Act also makes significant reforms to the way the controversial Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (also called the FISA Court) operates.  Since its creation in 1978, decisions by the court regarding data collection and surveillance have been made behind closed doors.  Under this new Act, the FISA Court will now be required to make public any significant decisions regarding opinions or interpretations of law.  In addition, an outside panel of privacy and civil liberties experts will advise the court and at times argue for your privacy rights.

All of these reforms are accomplished while preserving the government’s ability to track down foreign terrorists on our soil. Because of a loophole in current law, law enforcement agencies were required to stop tracking foreign terrorists when they entered the U.S.  The USA Freedom Act now gives our government agencies a 72-hour window to continue to track suspected terrorists while it works to obtain legal authority to continue surveillance.   

Hoosiers have made it clear that we need to rein in our intelligence-gathering programs that infringe on our civil liberties.  The USA Freedom Act does that.  It establishes a clear line between acceptable counterterrorism activities and unacceptable violations of our fundamental rights.  It shows liberty and security can co-exist.