Tech firms make final NSA reform appeal

The technology industry is making a vigorous push to reform the nation’s intelligence operations as the fight over the National Security Agency (NSA) comes down to the wire.

After months of negotiations, the Senate will vote Tuesday on whether to move forward with the carefully crafted bill. 

{mosads}The result is decidedly up in the air, and supporters on Monday were furiously making calls and twisting arms to come up with the 60 votes needed to move forward.

“This is a full push for us,” said one tech industry lobbyist working on the issue. “We have definitely blanketed everyone. I’m sure people have heard from us multiple times.”

Sen. Patrick Leahy’s (D-Vt.) USA Freedom Act would end the NSA’s bulk collection of phone records in the U.S. and give tech companies more ways to disclose the information they hand over to the government. It would also add a team of privacy advocates to the federal court that oversees intelligence agencies.

“This is the best opportunity to get this done, and this is something that is really important for the U.S. industry in terms of being able to have clear rules of the road of how we handle requests from the government and how we operate in a global marketplace,” said Andy Halataei, the senior vice president of governmental affairs at the Information Technology Industry Council. 

Leahy’s bill has a list of co-sponsors from both sides of the aisle, and supporters expect most Democrats to vote to advance it.

Democrats including Sens. Mark Udall (Colo.) and Ron Wyden (Ore.) might want the bill to go further to protect privacy, while Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (Calif.) is expected to offer amendments to address security concerns. But most of these Democrats are unlikely to block the bill at this point.

On the Republican side, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a potential 2016 presidential nominee who has an outsized voice with conservatives, is one of the three Republican co-sponsors.

But Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), another possible 2016 contender, opposes the bill because he says it does not go far enough. Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), on the other hand, thinks it needs to be dialed down.

If the USA Freedom Act does move forward, it still faces a gauntlet of possible amendments that could shake the coalition of tech firms, privacy groups and lawmakers who have signed on in support. The amendment process could push a vote on final passage into December. 

A bill approved by the Senate also would have to be reconciled with House legislation, another potential hurdle.

The House approved a version of the USA Freedom Act in May. Back-room changes on the way to the floor made it unpalatable to many tech companies and privacy advocates, however, and they eventually pulled their support.

A win in the Senate would make NSA reform the tech industry’s single biggest victory in a Congress marred by legislative defeat.

The sector previously lost major battles to reform the nation’s immigration and patent laws, which executives say are some of the biggest impediments to growing the U.S. tech industry.

Edward Snowden’s revelations about the NSA, however, have had a more immediately negative effect on business.

Reports about the U.S. spying programs, and the cooperation of companies legally bound to turn over records to the NSA, have tarnished the image of the U.S. tech sector abroad. By 2016, U.S. firms could lose as much as $180 billion, according to analysis by Forrester Research, a consulting firm. 

“What occurred was a loss of trust between America and other countries,” Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said earlier this year.

In response to the seeming inaction in Congress since Snowden’s first revelations last summer, companies have adopted additional security and privacy policies to reassure users that they are on their side. New iPhone and Android devices, for instance, are automatically encrypted to keep users’ data automatically locked from both hackers and the police.

The trend has caused a standoff between Silicon Valley and the Obama administration that will likely continue to escalate unless lawmakers can pass spying reform in the coming weeks.

In the days leading up to Tuesday’s vote, advocates have been working hard to win support for the bill.

The Reform Government Surveillance coalition, which includes Google, Microsoft, Facebook and other industry giants, wrote an open letter on Monday urging lawmakers to “send a strong message of change to the world.”

Executives at the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Rifle Association penned a joint op-ed in The Washington Times over the weekend pushing lawmakers to act.

If the bill fails, Congress will have to get back to the drawing board in the first few months of 2015.

The portion of the Patriot Act authorizing the NSA’s phone records collection program expires June 1, giving lawmakers precious few weeks to write and pass a reauthorization bill.

Many critics have said they will refuse to vote for a blanket reauthorization without changes, which could kill the program entirely. Intelligence officials say that would be a disastrous outcome. 

“[O]ur intelligence officials are asking for operational certainty.” Leahy said in a statement ahead of Tuesday’s vote. “Likewise, the American people are asking us to protect their privacy,” 

“It is time to show the American people that Congress is about more than talking points, sound bites, and the next campaign,” he added.