RELATED STORY: USA Freedom Act Passes Senate

WASHINGTON — Industry and advocacy groups were generally pleased with passage of the USA Freedom Act on Tuesday (June 2), though for many it was viewed as a step in an ongoing process.

For example, the New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute (OTI) called it the first major victory in an ongoing battle for surveillance reform.

“The end of bulk collection under the USA Patriot Act is just the beginning — not the end — of reform," OTI policy director Kevin Bankston said. "We will need to be vigilant to ensure that the reforms in USA Freedom are implemented faithfully, using the transparency and accountability tools created by the bill to make sure that the new bans on bulk collection are working. Congress must also quickly turn its attention to the important work of ending mass surveillance and warrantless searches of Americans’ online activities under Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act

Computer & Communications Industry Association president Ed Black said: "Today’s vote is a tangible victory for citizens around the world, and a step toward restoring trust in the U.S. government and the ability of lawmakers to do what is right in the face of tremendous political pressure. It also begins the process of rebuilding the confidence of Internet users worldwide in American providers of digital services.

“The USA Freedom Act is not a complete panacea, and serves only as the first step in what will prove to be a lengthy and difficult process to reform the mass surveillance programs in use by the U.S. government.  However, it does much to end the bulk collection of Americans' data across a number of authorities, provides for significant privacy reporting by the private sector, the intelligence community, and secret FISA court, and should lead to improved oversight of surveillance programs by our citizens," Black added.

The bill sets a six-month transition for the reforms, so in the interim the bulk collection will continue.

Tech Freedom, a libertarian-leaning nonprofit advocacy group, said it saw the USA Freedom Act’s passage as a big win and an end to "all" bulk collection of phone records.  “By passing the USA Freedom Act, the Senate has restored legitimate intelligence capabilities while putting an end to needless domestic dragnet data collection,” Tech Freedom president Berin Szoka said. “While the Section 215 sunset was a symbolic victory for privacy, it would have allowed bulk collection to continue under other authorities, such as the FISA pen/trap statute and National Security Letters.”

Software makers were celebrating.

“This is a tremendous accomplishment and an important day for the U.S. technology industry," Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) vice president for public policy Mark MacCarthy said. "This legislation will both safeguard our country and ensure that individual privacy protections are upheld. For more than two years, SIIA and other tech leaders have called for reform of the U.S. surveillance system as an essential part of ensuring America’s continued economic leadership. Because it will restore international trust in American businesses, sensible surveillance reform is not only a security issue, but is also an important economic concern.

The American Civil Liberties Union was celebrating, if only a partial victory.

“The passage of the USA Freedom Act is a milestone. This is the most important surveillance reform bill since 1978, and its passage is an indication that Americans are no longer willing to give the intelligence agencies a blank check," ACLU deputy legal director Jameel Jaffer said. "It’s a testament to the significance of the Snowden disclosures and also to the hard work of many principled legislators on both sides of the aisle."

"Still, no one should mistake this bill for comprehensive reform. The bill leaves many of the government’s most intrusive and overbroad surveillance powers untouched, and it makes only very modest adjustments to disclosure and transparency requirements."

But not everyone was applauding.

Tough Patriot Act critic CREDO Mobile, a San Francisco-based wireless provider that uses its profits to fund progressive causes, said it saw things a lot differently.

“The Senate just voted to create sweeping new authorities for the government to conduct unconstitutional mass surveillance of Americans," it said in a statement. "From now on, every time the government violates our privacy without a warrant by sweeping up highly-sensitive medical, educational, financial, email and telephone records, the responsibility will rest squarely on the shoulders of the senators who voted today to recreate expired Patriot Act authorities.”

Senate Saturday  failed to pass either the USA Freedom Act (http://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/washington/white-house-senate-dont...)or a short-term renewal of Sec. 215 bulk data collection authority under the PATRIOT Act, which expires June 1.

USA Freedom is a bipartisan House-passed bill that would end indiscriminate bulk metada collection by the NSA, which was brought to light through leaks by NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The bill would not end bulk collection, but would have narrowed it and provided for more transparency.

The alternative was a straight, two-month extension of the PATRIOIT Act authorities while Congress continued to debate the issue, but that failed as well.

The Senate has exited for the Memorial Day break, but is scheduled to return early (on Sunday, May 31) to deal with the USA Freedom Act and perhaps get an up or down vote.

The Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), which represents computer and tech companies including Google, Microsoft, Apple and Panasonic, was not pleased with Congress' inaction.

“We are incredibly disappointed in the Senate’s failure to pass the USA Freedom Act," said ITI President Dean Garfield. "This morning’s (May 23) vote was a missed opportunity to bring certainty and clarity to our nation’s surveillance laws.  We have said from the beginning that Congressional action is needed to restore trust here at home and globally in our government and the technology sector.  The USA Freedom Act would have effectively ended indiscriminate bulk collection of data and bring much needed transparency to the process by allowing tech companies to report information about the government orders they receive for access to data. 

“Unfortunately, now, the path forward is shaky and uncertain. We call on Congress to remain committed to finish the necessary steps to ensure that surveillance authorities appropriately protect peoples’ privacy and civil liberties while enabling a lawful and legitimate access to data by the government.”

Kevin Bankston, policy director of New America’s Open Technology Institute, called it a "shocking insult to the democratic process, and to the American people who have been demanding reform for two years, that the Senate’s leaders have ignored the White House, federal judges, and an overwhelming majority of the House of Representatives by blocking the USA Freedom Act."

Privacy advocates who argued USA Freedom provided insufficient protections and who also opposed the short-term PATRIOT Act reauthorization, or any reauthorization for that matter, were celebrating the bills' failure.

“These bills were an attempt to disregard the abuses revealed by Snowden and cement mass surveillance into law in defiance of the Constitution, the courts, and public sentiment,” said Jeff Lyon, CTO of Fight for the Future, in a statement, “The failure of these bills to pass shows just how dramatically the politics of surveillance changed once the extent of the government’s surveillance programs became known to the public.”