– Important but ‘not enough’ –
The fugitive Snowden, alternatively seen as a villain by intelligence backers and a hero by supporters of stronger civil liberties, hailed the congressional action as “historic.”
Speaking by live video link from Russia at an Amnesty International event in London shortly before the bill was passed, Snowden called efforts to end mass surveillance “not enough” but “an important step.”
The Republican divisions, as well as delay tactics by Senator Rand Paul, a 2016 presidential candidate, forced an expiration of the bulk data collection program and two other sections of the USA Patriot Act, roving wiretap and lone-wolf tracking authorities, all of which expired at midnight Sunday.
The legislation that passed Tuesday would reauthorize the latter two provisions.
The strong vote marked a stunning rebuke to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who sought in vain to amend the bill.
One of the changes would have extended the transition period from six months to a year from NSA storage to telecoms storage of the data.
Another would have stripped out a provision that declassifies rulings by the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) Court, a move critics have argued would erode important transparency that was built into the Freedom Act.
The changes were rejected, with at least 11 Republicans opposing McConnell to vote against the amendments.
McConnell decried the reform bill as “a step backward.”
“This is going to diminish our ability to respond to the myriad threats we have today,” he said in a provocative floor speech in which he accused the Obama administration of withdrawing from leadership in the battle against extremism.
“It is also a resounding victory for those who continually plot against our homeland,” McConnell said.
The vote occurred against a backdrop of Republican infighting and tension about the bill.
House leaders had warned that any change to the bill could delay its final passage or even kill it, which would have meant several national security authorizations expiring for good.
Many major Internet firms declared victory with the congressional approval.
“The USA Freedom Act realizes hard-fought and much-needed wins for Internet users everywhere, including prohibiting the bulk collection of user data,” Yahoo! said in a statement.
But Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio, a Florida senator who voted against the act, slammed it as result of “weak presidential leadership.”
“The failure to renew the expiring components of the PATRIOT Act was a mistake. The ‘USA Freedom Act’ weakens U.S. national security by outlawing the very programs our intelligence community and the FBI have used to protect us time and time again,” Rubio said.
“Unfortunately, weak presidential leadership combined with a politically motivated misinformation campaign have now left the American people less safe than we’ve been at any point since the 9/11 attacks,” he added.
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