White House: Pass NSA reform, avoid ‘brinksmanship and uncertainty’

The White House said on Monday that it “strongly supports” the surveillance reform bill headed to the Senate Tuesday.

In a statement of administration policy, the Obama administration called the USA Freedom Act “a reasonable compromise that enhances privacy and civil liberties and increases transparency.”

{mosads}“Without passage of this bill, critical authorities that are appropriately reformed in this legislation could expire next summer,” the White House added. 

“The administration urges Congress to take action on this legislation now, since delay may subject these important national security authorities to brinksmanship and uncertainty.”

The bill from Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) would end the National Security Agency’s (NSA) bulk collection of phone records in the U.S. and require the agency to obtain a court order before searching private companies’ databases, among other changes. Without reform, the authority to search for those records will end entirely in June, which intelligence officials say would be disastrous for country’s national security.

Failing to pass the bill now would likely lead to a heated debate in Congress early next year.

The administration did take issue with one measure of the NSA reform bill, however, which would create a panel of privacy of advocates on the federal court overseeing intelligence activities. Officials have raised some concerns about that provision, which they say could bog down the court with extra work and might not provide any additional protections to people’s privacy.

In its Monday statement, the White House said it “anticipates that Congress will address those concerns” about the panel.  

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) is expected to introduce an amendment to respond to that criticism, which would surely draw ire from privacy advocates. It is unclear, however, whether or not that would cause them to back off their support of the bill.

The measure is scheduled for a procedural vote late on Tuesday. On Monday, many analysts of the process were not certain that it had the 60 votes necessary to proceed.