Senator Al Franken states the telecommunication companies have already told the Senate the "USA Freedom Act" is fine as it is written today without amendments.
The Majority Leader of the Senate, namely Senator McConnell, have amendments that will cause the "USA Freedom Act" to be derailed.
Senator Franken states the "USA Freedom Act" is already a compromised bill that were negotiated last year.
The bill has a provision that allows it to be revisited as necessary. Also noted is the fact the US House has already passed the existing bill and the outcome if there are changes with amendments does not guarantee the House would accept the bill with the amendments.
I tell you what. If this mess keeps the Senate and House busy as time passes with the expired Patriot Act, that is a winning situation.
The voting is now taking place on the amendments. Roll call votes.
Twenty one amendments (click here).
I think it was Amendment 1432 that was tabled by Senator McConnell.
Amendment 1460 was submitted by Senator Rand Paul and can only be accessed from the Congressional Record.
This is from Senator Paul's website:
Washington, D.C. – Sen. Ron Wyden, (click here) D-Ore., and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., announced nine amendments to reform U.S. surveillance programs, enhance protections for American’s personal information and improve transparency regarding intelligence activities. Wyden and Paul called on Republican leaders to allow votes on amendments to strengthen privacy protections, rather than forcing votes on amendments that would water down the USA Freedom Act.
You have to be able to read the small print. No, not between the lines, the small print. Senators Paul and Wyden have already read between the lines.
The joint amendments would:
· Amendment 1446: Require the government to get a warrant before collecting personal information from third parties
· Amendment 1441: Raise the standard for government collection of call records under FISA from “reasonable grounds” to “probable cause”
· Amendment 1442: Limit the government’s ability to use information gathered under intelligence authorities in unrelated criminal cases (this was tabled by Senator McConnell)
· Amendment 1443: Make it easier to challenge the use of illegally obtained surveillance information in criminal proceedings
· Amendment 1454: Prohibit the government from requiring hardware and software companies to deliberately weaken encryption and other security features
· Amendment 1444: Clarify the bill’s definition of “specific selection terms”
· Amendment 1445: Require court approval for National Security Letters
· Amendment 1455: Prohibit the government from conducting warrantless reviews of Americans’ email and other communications under section 702 of the Foreign intelligence Surveillance Act
· Amendment 1460: Strengthen the bill with additional provisions from previously introduced surveillance reform legislation.
I believe the laws of the USA should be strong enough to end crime. But, there is a limit. I am fairly sure someone asked the intelligence agencies if there was one of these amendments that could be eliminated what would it be? Hence, Amendment 1442.
I doubt any of these amendments are going to pass. The votes regarding amendments are on a simple majority. There is 56 "NO" votes for the first amendment. That will probably define the session depending on the wording of the amendments. They'll either swing to yes or no depending on the reinstitution of the NSA program.
It has been the practice of the Congress.gov site to print the wording of the amendments. This diversion of the actual wording of the amendments to a different website, especially the Federal Register is a definite evasion of disclosure. It is a power play against the public.
This is unbelievable. Every other department at the Federal Register (click here) website has a listing of pertinent information EXCEPT for Homeland Security. Amazing.
The Republican House and Senate are afraid of the electorate.
Published Privacy Impact Assessments on the Web (click here)
This is all dated information before 8.20.2010.
The search of "The American Freedom Act" turned up 6,678 documents (click here). I don't know how that link is going to translate as the words have to be put into the 'search' command.
As imagined by the US Congress, I am not going to look through all those documents only to realize the amendments are not with the original bill.
The Congress knows it cannot withhold information from the electorate, but, it doesn't have to make it easy to find the bill, amendments or facts.
Will candidates for federal office promise to provide the American people free and unencumbered access to bills and their amendments?
This bill was initiated two years ago in 2013. It has taken this long to get it this far.
Senator Leahy referred to the Church Committee and the important work he has conducted to protect the security of Americans. This article portrays an interesting sentiment of then Senators. It is a good reference point by Senator Leahy.
In 1973, CIA Director James Schlesinger told Senate Armed Services Chairman John Stennis
that he wished to brief him on a major upcoming operation. "No, no my
boy," responded Senator Stennis. "Don't tell me. Just go ahead and do
it, but I don't want to know." Similarly, when Senate Foreign Relations
Committee Chairman J. W. Fulbright
was told of the CIA subversion of the Allende government in Chile, he
responded, "I don't approve of intervention in other people's elections,
but it has been a long-continued practice."
Late in 1974, investigative reporter Seymour Hersh revealed that the CIA was not only destabilizing foreign governments, but was also conducting illegal intelligence operations against thousands of American citizens.
On January 27, 1975, a concerned Senate voted overwhelmingly to establish a special 11-member investigating body along the lines of the recently concluded Watergate Committee. Under the chairmanship of Idaho senator Frank Church, with Texas senator John Tower as vice-chairman, the select committee was given twelve months (later extended to sixteen) and hired 150 staff to complete its work....
Ah, oh, Senator McConnell is making a CYA speech blaming President Obama for any problems in the future. Senator McConnell is an amazing man, he has managed to include context in his "leader speech" that includes the IRS, EPA and al Qaeda. Wow. Okay, here comes more words to include in that speech, "Call data records."
I am sorry, but, if the US Senate and House are going to pass legislation that makes the websites Americans rely on for information inaccessible, it sincerely rattles my respect. Can you tell?
Oh, jeeze now he is on to Edward Snowden. Edward are you listening?
Here comes CNN. Did you that CNN can't be part of the right wing conspiracy? It is true according to Senator McConnell. I feel so much better.
Senator Reid is stating the bill needs to pass because it is a good option for the American people. No reference to CNN yet.
Oh come on, please get along. Senator McConnell is stating Senator Reid is upset because he doesn't get to set the schedule anymore. That's enough. Stop being difficult on the Senate floor. Take the politics outside.
Cairo? Cairo is in Egypt and it is not the same as it used to be. Egypt's attempt at democracy only provided another dictatorship by former President Mubarak's General. We have another President of another Muslim country that blends military leader with government leader.
Off topic. The final vote of the new NSA surveillance bill is underway.
The problem that manifested in Egypt in a process that was viewed as completely democratic without government interference resulted because extremist leaders were allowed to become part of the opportunity to power.
In the USA, regardless of obvious leanings by some elected party members, the focus is on the will of the people not the leanings of the elected officials. The government of the USA is not allowed to burden the people with religious priorities. It is imperfect, but, works. I wish there was such a paradigm in every Muslim country that wants to experience democracy and not theocracy.
The elected government of the USA is kept in check by a vibrant media and free and open access to government including televised proceedings of it's governing body.
One has to question, with the manifestation of Daesh in the Middle East, if mixing government and religion is THE BEST method for the people if the transition can be made to buffer the effects of religion?
Everyday a representative from the faith community leads any governing session with an opening prayer. It is welcome by some members of the Congress. It has yet to undermine the USA Constitution.
Any process to real democracy can and should be achieved by peaceful decisions as the country reveals it is ready for such freedom. There is no absolute on a timeline that reveals the very moment a change in constitution and governance should or can occur. Such shifts come with time and readiness of the people. The people that comprised the thirteen colonies in the USA were on the soil of British possessions for a long time before they decided democracy, freedom and citizen's rights were important demanding an independent government.
The Senate approves the House passed NSA surveillance bill, 67-32. It is noted by the commentator of C-Span that Senator Bernie Sanders when in attendance voted no on other such bills. The bill goes to the President for his signature.
Okay.
"Time to Wake Up." - Senator Sheldon Whitehouse is making his regular address regarding the Climate Crisis. I think he called it climate change. He refers to Mr. Taylor, a leader of a Libertarian think tank, states the need for a carbon fee is important to bring carbon pollution under control. He is talking about Mr. Freedman, an economist and the definition of 'externality' and the idea government is suppose to diminish the problems of NEGATIVE EXTERNALITIES. In other words, government has a place in the USA economy other than simply throwing control to the private sector. Government is suppose to control the negative externalities that impact the private sector as the climate crisis profoundly does.
That is simply the economics of the climate crisis. What has happened to the idea of a public trust that values the lives, well being and quality of life to the American people?
The carbon "FEE" seems to be popular with the research Senator Whitehouse has accumulated. The carbon fee is popular with Republicans outside the Senate.
According to Senator Whitehouse, the idea of a fee is seen as beneficial by Republicans and economists alike.
There are those among right leaning leadership that see a carbon fee replacing the burden of taxation to average Americans.
George Shultz and Gary S. Becker has made a case for a carbon fee in the Wall Street Journal.
April 7, 2013
Americans (click here) like to compete on a level playing field. All the players should have an equal opportunity to win based on their competitive merits, not on some artificial imbalance that gives someone or some group a special advantage.
We think this idea should be applied to energy producers. They all should bear the full costs of the use of the energy they provide. Most of these costs are included in what it takes to produce the energy in the first place, but they vary greatly in the price imposed on society by the pollution they emit and its impact on human health and well-being, the air we breathe and the climate we create. We should identify these costs and see that they are attributed to the form of energy that causes them....
Perhaps they should come to speak at the Democratic National Convention. Why the DNC?
This is why. Ten days later in the Wall Street Journal.
April 17, 2013
With all due respect (click here) to George P. Shultz and Gary S. Becker, I wish to register strong disagreement with their suggestions in "Why We Support a Revenue-Neutral Carbon Tax" (op-ed, April 8).
There has never been a revenue-neutral, federally managed tax of any kind, and to suggest that either the Social Security Administration or the IRS would ever stand any chance of providing revenue neutrality on a carbon tax is beyond description.
To the authors' credit they suggest that it should be a primary goal of any future energy-industry tax strategy to eliminate all subsidies—for every participant in the energy market. That means the production tax credit for renewable energy needs to go away.
Enough about carbon taxes. If you have a goal of higher energy prices, put on the tax and you will achieve the desired effect. If you want to punish Americans for being the most creative, constructive energy producers and deliverers on the globe, then pass a carbon tax and become just like our model tax-and-spend state, California....
What will occur with a carbon tax is that carbon based energy will become more expensive than alternative fuels when all subsidies are eliminated. That is completely unacceptable to the petroleum industry and political investors to the right wing.
With a carbon fee the USA wins in multiple ways. It is a market based solution, it actually impacts the economy in a way that works and the subsidies go back into the US Treasury.
The carbon fee/tax doesn't eliminate the rules of the EPA, it enhances them and empowers them. But, it is a market based solution and not pure regulation. It should fulfill the need to impact negative externalities.
Senator Whitehouse plans to submit a bill to the US Senate for passage of a carbon fee/tax. I remind Senator Whitehouse, the US Supreme Court has already lent it's decision regarding the word "fee" and accepted it as a tax under USA law. It might be better to be explicit in the word tax and/or use the word fee while referencing to such a word from the Supreme Court to prevent any ambiguities. It is getting a little silly about 'wording' of USA law rather than it's explicit intent and spirit.
The rest of the session in the Senate is going to be dedicated to comments by Senators. Senator Toomey is stating his disappointment in the passage of the USA Freedom Act. Senator Rounds is going to talk about the military.
End.
The Majority Leader of the Senate, namely Senator McConnell, have amendments that will cause the "USA Freedom Act" to be derailed.
Senator Franken states the "USA Freedom Act" is already a compromised bill that were negotiated last year.
The bill has a provision that allows it to be revisited as necessary. Also noted is the fact the US House has already passed the existing bill and the outcome if there are changes with amendments does not guarantee the House would accept the bill with the amendments.
I tell you what. If this mess keeps the Senate and House busy as time passes with the expired Patriot Act, that is a winning situation.
The voting is now taking place on the amendments. Roll call votes.
Twenty one amendments (click here).
I think it was Amendment 1432 that was tabled by Senator McConnell.
Amendment 1460 was submitted by Senator Rand Paul and can only be accessed from the Congressional Record.
Description: S.Amdt. 1460 — 114th Congress (2015-2016)
Purpose:
The Text tab links to the submitted text of this amendment printed in the Congressional Record. When the amendment is proposed for consideration, a purpose will be available.This is from Senator Paul's website:
Washington, D.C. – Sen. Ron Wyden, (click here) D-Ore., and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., announced nine amendments to reform U.S. surveillance programs, enhance protections for American’s personal information and improve transparency regarding intelligence activities. Wyden and Paul called on Republican leaders to allow votes on amendments to strengthen privacy protections, rather than forcing votes on amendments that would water down the USA Freedom Act.
You have to be able to read the small print. No, not between the lines, the small print. Senators Paul and Wyden have already read between the lines.
The joint amendments would:
· Amendment 1446: Require the government to get a warrant before collecting personal information from third parties
· Amendment 1441: Raise the standard for government collection of call records under FISA from “reasonable grounds” to “probable cause”
· Amendment 1442: Limit the government’s ability to use information gathered under intelligence authorities in unrelated criminal cases (this was tabled by Senator McConnell)
· Amendment 1443: Make it easier to challenge the use of illegally obtained surveillance information in criminal proceedings
· Amendment 1454: Prohibit the government from requiring hardware and software companies to deliberately weaken encryption and other security features
· Amendment 1444: Clarify the bill’s definition of “specific selection terms”
· Amendment 1445: Require court approval for National Security Letters
· Amendment 1455: Prohibit the government from conducting warrantless reviews of Americans’ email and other communications under section 702 of the Foreign intelligence Surveillance Act
· Amendment 1460: Strengthen the bill with additional provisions from previously introduced surveillance reform legislation.
I believe the laws of the USA should be strong enough to end crime. But, there is a limit. I am fairly sure someone asked the intelligence agencies if there was one of these amendments that could be eliminated what would it be? Hence, Amendment 1442.
I doubt any of these amendments are going to pass. The votes regarding amendments are on a simple majority. There is 56 "NO" votes for the first amendment. That will probably define the session depending on the wording of the amendments. They'll either swing to yes or no depending on the reinstitution of the NSA program.
It has been the practice of the Congress.gov site to print the wording of the amendments. This diversion of the actual wording of the amendments to a different website, especially the Federal Register is a definite evasion of disclosure. It is a power play against the public.
This is unbelievable. Every other department at the Federal Register (click here) website has a listing of pertinent information EXCEPT for Homeland Security. Amazing.
The Republican House and Senate are afraid of the electorate.
Published Privacy Impact Assessments on the Web (click here)
This is all dated information before 8.20.2010.
The search of "The American Freedom Act" turned up 6,678 documents (click here). I don't know how that link is going to translate as the words have to be put into the 'search' command.
As imagined by the US Congress, I am not going to look through all those documents only to realize the amendments are not with the original bill.
The Congress knows it cannot withhold information from the electorate, but, it doesn't have to make it easy to find the bill, amendments or facts.
Will candidates for federal office promise to provide the American people free and unencumbered access to bills and their amendments?
This bill was initiated two years ago in 2013. It has taken this long to get it this far.
Senator Leahy referred to the Church Committee and the important work he has conducted to protect the security of Americans. This article portrays an interesting sentiment of then Senators. It is a good reference point by Senator Leahy.
January 27, 1975
Church Committee Created (click here)
Church Committee Created (click here)
Late in 1974, investigative reporter Seymour Hersh revealed that the CIA was not only destabilizing foreign governments, but was also conducting illegal intelligence operations against thousands of American citizens.
On January 27, 1975, a concerned Senate voted overwhelmingly to establish a special 11-member investigating body along the lines of the recently concluded Watergate Committee. Under the chairmanship of Idaho senator Frank Church, with Texas senator John Tower as vice-chairman, the select committee was given twelve months (later extended to sixteen) and hired 150 staff to complete its work....
Ah, oh, Senator McConnell is making a CYA speech blaming President Obama for any problems in the future. Senator McConnell is an amazing man, he has managed to include context in his "leader speech" that includes the IRS, EPA and al Qaeda. Wow. Okay, here comes more words to include in that speech, "Call data records."
I am sorry, but, if the US Senate and House are going to pass legislation that makes the websites Americans rely on for information inaccessible, it sincerely rattles my respect. Can you tell?
Oh, jeeze now he is on to Edward Snowden. Edward are you listening?
Here comes CNN. Did you that CNN can't be part of the right wing conspiracy? It is true according to Senator McConnell. I feel so much better.
Senator Reid is stating the bill needs to pass because it is a good option for the American people. No reference to CNN yet.
Oh come on, please get along. Senator McConnell is stating Senator Reid is upset because he doesn't get to set the schedule anymore. That's enough. Stop being difficult on the Senate floor. Take the politics outside.
Cairo? Cairo is in Egypt and it is not the same as it used to be. Egypt's attempt at democracy only provided another dictatorship by former President Mubarak's General. We have another President of another Muslim country that blends military leader with government leader.
Off topic. The final vote of the new NSA surveillance bill is underway.
The problem that manifested in Egypt in a process that was viewed as completely democratic without government interference resulted because extremist leaders were allowed to become part of the opportunity to power.
In the USA, regardless of obvious leanings by some elected party members, the focus is on the will of the people not the leanings of the elected officials. The government of the USA is not allowed to burden the people with religious priorities. It is imperfect, but, works. I wish there was such a paradigm in every Muslim country that wants to experience democracy and not theocracy.
The elected government of the USA is kept in check by a vibrant media and free and open access to government including televised proceedings of it's governing body.
One has to question, with the manifestation of Daesh in the Middle East, if mixing government and religion is THE BEST method for the people if the transition can be made to buffer the effects of religion?
Everyday a representative from the faith community leads any governing session with an opening prayer. It is welcome by some members of the Congress. It has yet to undermine the USA Constitution.
Any process to real democracy can and should be achieved by peaceful decisions as the country reveals it is ready for such freedom. There is no absolute on a timeline that reveals the very moment a change in constitution and governance should or can occur. Such shifts come with time and readiness of the people. The people that comprised the thirteen colonies in the USA were on the soil of British possessions for a long time before they decided democracy, freedom and citizen's rights were important demanding an independent government.
The Senate approves the House passed NSA surveillance bill, 67-32. It is noted by the commentator of C-Span that Senator Bernie Sanders when in attendance voted no on other such bills. The bill goes to the President for his signature.
Okay.
"Time to Wake Up." - Senator Sheldon Whitehouse is making his regular address regarding the Climate Crisis. I think he called it climate change. He refers to Mr. Taylor, a leader of a Libertarian think tank, states the need for a carbon fee is important to bring carbon pollution under control. He is talking about Mr. Freedman, an economist and the definition of 'externality' and the idea government is suppose to diminish the problems of NEGATIVE EXTERNALITIES. In other words, government has a place in the USA economy other than simply throwing control to the private sector. Government is suppose to control the negative externalities that impact the private sector as the climate crisis profoundly does.
That is simply the economics of the climate crisis. What has happened to the idea of a public trust that values the lives, well being and quality of life to the American people?
The carbon "FEE" seems to be popular with the research Senator Whitehouse has accumulated. The carbon fee is popular with Republicans outside the Senate.
According to Senator Whitehouse, the idea of a fee is seen as beneficial by Republicans and economists alike.
There are those among right leaning leadership that see a carbon fee replacing the burden of taxation to average Americans.
George Shultz and Gary S. Becker has made a case for a carbon fee in the Wall Street Journal.
April 7, 2013
Americans (click here) like to compete on a level playing field. All the players should have an equal opportunity to win based on their competitive merits, not on some artificial imbalance that gives someone or some group a special advantage.
We think this idea should be applied to energy producers. They all should bear the full costs of the use of the energy they provide. Most of these costs are included in what it takes to produce the energy in the first place, but they vary greatly in the price imposed on society by the pollution they emit and its impact on human health and well-being, the air we breathe and the climate we create. We should identify these costs and see that they are attributed to the form of energy that causes them....
Perhaps they should come to speak at the Democratic National Convention. Why the DNC?
This is why. Ten days later in the Wall Street Journal.
April 17, 2013
With all due respect (click here) to George P. Shultz and Gary S. Becker, I wish to register strong disagreement with their suggestions in "Why We Support a Revenue-Neutral Carbon Tax" (op-ed, April 8).
There has never been a revenue-neutral, federally managed tax of any kind, and to suggest that either the Social Security Administration or the IRS would ever stand any chance of providing revenue neutrality on a carbon tax is beyond description.
To the authors' credit they suggest that it should be a primary goal of any future energy-industry tax strategy to eliminate all subsidies—for every participant in the energy market. That means the production tax credit for renewable energy needs to go away.
Enough about carbon taxes. If you have a goal of higher energy prices, put on the tax and you will achieve the desired effect. If you want to punish Americans for being the most creative, constructive energy producers and deliverers on the globe, then pass a carbon tax and become just like our model tax-and-spend state, California....
What will occur with a carbon tax is that carbon based energy will become more expensive than alternative fuels when all subsidies are eliminated. That is completely unacceptable to the petroleum industry and political investors to the right wing.
With a carbon fee the USA wins in multiple ways. It is a market based solution, it actually impacts the economy in a way that works and the subsidies go back into the US Treasury.
The carbon fee/tax doesn't eliminate the rules of the EPA, it enhances them and empowers them. But, it is a market based solution and not pure regulation. It should fulfill the need to impact negative externalities.
Senator Whitehouse plans to submit a bill to the US Senate for passage of a carbon fee/tax. I remind Senator Whitehouse, the US Supreme Court has already lent it's decision regarding the word "fee" and accepted it as a tax under USA law. It might be better to be explicit in the word tax and/or use the word fee while referencing to such a word from the Supreme Court to prevent any ambiguities. It is getting a little silly about 'wording' of USA law rather than it's explicit intent and spirit.
The rest of the session in the Senate is going to be dedicated to comments by Senators. Senator Toomey is stating his disappointment in the passage of the USA Freedom Act. Senator Rounds is going to talk about the military.
End.
