Intel panel head rolls out NSA backup plan

The head of the Senate Intelligence Committee is unveiling a backup plan in case his chamber can’t move forward with legislation to renew expiring parts of the Patriot Act.

If the Senate fails to either reform the National Security Agency (NSA) or extend the Patriot Act provisions for an additional two months, Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) is gambling on lawmakers to pass an even shorter term extension of the law.

{mosads}“Then it’s up to the leadership to determine what type of extension is reasonable — that could be anywhere from five days to four weeks,” Burr told reporters off the Senate floor.

Then, they would be able to move to his backup plan, which “would be a win-win for those that want to transition the data from NSA to the telephone companies,” he said Thursday evening.

The week- or month-long extension would require quick and quiet action from House leaders next week, while the chamber is in recess. That would surely enrage many lawmakers, and House GOP leadership aides have attempted to throw water on the prospect.  

Burr’s backup plan — called the FISA Improvements Act — would mirror the most prominent feature of the USA Freedom Act, the surveillance reform bill that would end the bulk collection of Americans’ phone records and which sailed through the House last week. Instead of collecting phone records itself, the USA Freedom Act would have the NSA request a narrow set of records from private companies.

While the USA Freedom Act would allow for six months to transition the program, Burr’s plan would give the agency two years. 

The NSA has said that six months is plenty of time to transition to the new program.

The agency “assesses that the transition of the program” to the scheme envisioned by the USA Freedom Act “is achievable within 180 days,” NSA Director Adm. Michael Rogers said in a letter to Senate leaders this week. 

“We are aware of no technical or security reasons why this cannot be tested and brought on line within the 180-day period.”

Burr disagrees.

“I don’t think six months is long enough,” he said on Thursday.

Rogers’s letter “said they thought it was achievable and on the day of enactment they would get together with the telecom companies and begin to work on a transition,” Burr said.

“The unfortunate thing is I can’t necessarily agree to something that they think they can do and there’s such a big national security gap at stake.”

On Friday morning, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) — who has vocally opposed the USA Freedom Act — seemed to lend his support to Burr’s plan.

The Obama administration “could not guarantee whether a new system would work as well as the current system,” he said.

Burr’s bill also deviates from the USA Freedom Act in its creation of a new expert advisory panel on the secretive federal surveillance court.

Additionally, it would make permanent the two expiring Patriot Act provisions that don’t cover the NSA’s phone records program — which cover suspected lone wolf terrorists and people who switch through multiple “burner” phones. The USA Freedom Act would extend those two to 2019.

Critics were quick to jump on the proposal as a last-ditch effort to come up with a plan.

“This is not a responsible way to legislate, nor is this the extensive process the Republican majority promised when they blocked the USA Freedom Act last year,” Sen Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) — one of the authors of the USA Freedom Act — said in a statement.