Last week, I wrote about a vote in the House Rules Committee that created an extremely difficult barrier to the presentation of a group of civil liberties amendments to H.R. 5325, a water and energy appropriations bill. Among the amendments that were put into a procedurally precarious position was one by U.S. Representative Rush Holt that would have required the Attorney General and Director of National Intelligence to finally “reveal how many U.S. Persons had their domestic communications intercepted since the implementation of the FISA Amendments Act”.
Now, an update.
On Friday, a brief window of time was given for amendments to H.R. 5325 to be offered. Holt’s amendment was not among those that could be offered. Neither were the other amendments to protect Americans’ constitutional rights. It seems that the maneuver to block the civil liberties amendments worked.
Legislation to extend the FISA Amendments Act electronic surveillance law for five more years, to June 2017, will soon be presented in both the U.S. House and Senate.
They’ve been doing this for years! Where’s the news in that? It’s their modus operandi and completely expected behavior for the party of NO.
It’s news because there was an opportunity to put the FISA Amendements Act and other anti-constitutional government abuses under some control. I’m sorry you don’t think that’s newsworthy.