US Congress must stop NSA bulk data collection - Chairman of Judiciary
30 May 2014, 09:36 -- There is a lot of work to be done to rein in the National Security Agency and give Congress adequate means to oversee its activities, Senior Congressman and Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, John Conyers told RIA Novosti.
'We have got to get [this bill to end] bulk collection through both the House and Senate and get the President to sign it,' said Conyers.
Conyers was referring to the USA Freedom Act, which passed the House on May 22. It was a third legislative attempt by members of the House to restrict NSA dragnet data collection on Americans.
'We're coming back with it. Now we have to get it through to the floor and the Senate,' Conyers continued.
RIA Novosti asked Rep. Conyers whether he agreed with the statement made by House Intelligence Committee Chair, Mike Rogers, who said Congress was able to properly oversee NSA activities.
Rogers told RIA Novosti at the Cybersecurity and Diplomacy Forum at George Washington University, 'I absolutely, fundamentally reject the fact that there has not been oversight. We do conduct oversight.'
In response, Conyers stated, 'Not at all. No way. There are a lot of transparency questions and other complications that make his statement one that I could not agree with in any respect. We've got a lot of work to do.'
Despite criticism that the USA Freedom Act did not go far enough to curb NSA surveillance, Conyers said in a press release the day the bill passed the House, that it 'is an important step in the right direction.'
He also called the Act, 'the first significant rollback of government surveillance since the passage of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in 1978.'
Asked by RIA Novosti about his thoughts on Edward Snowden and his recently aired interview with NBC, Conyers said, 'Snowden was trying to do a patriotic thing. I think he understood that he was violating the law, no matter what reason he did it for. So that means he is prepared to pay the consequences. My personal wish, is that he would come back to the United States. But,' Conyers joked, 'he hasn't asked me.'
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