

Representatives that rejected limits on NSA data collection and funding sources - kumarski
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AitechWnbrJVdFpZYjBYSkJCNms4M1ozLVVjSXhpTWc#gid=0
Feel free to add sources&#x2F;links&#x2F;columns to the list. There&#x27;s 217 rows.
======
codex
The most interesting takeaway from the data in this spreadsheet: _every single
member_ of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence voted to
reject these limits, regardless of party affiliation. This committee is
responsible for intelligence oversight and is briefed on all intelligence
activities by the executive branch--mostly classified information. In other
words, these are the House members which are most familiar with how the NSA
operates, its oversight (or lack thereof), the intelligence it obtains, and
the action taken on that intelligence. By virtue of sitting on this committee,
they are also likely to receive political contributions from the defense
industry.

~~~
wavesounds
And the people in congress who get the most access to all that data. Perhaps
they should have recused themselves?

~~~
codex
Are you suggesting that they use this data for personal gain? Who better to
judge the tradeoffs than those who have seen the data? Someone who hasn't seen
it, perhaps?

~~~
infinity0
Data is indeed irrelevant; it's how it's collected that is the issue. So
letting the former influence the latter is most definitely not proper.

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andyl
Of the Bay-Area congress people I know (Eshoo, Lofgren, Honda, Speier,
Pelosi), only one rejected limits on NSA. Pelosi.

Nancy Pelosi, representative of San Francisco, voted in favor of unlimited NSA
wiretaps for all of your phone and email traffic.

~~~
codex
Pelosi also happened to serve as the ranking member the House Intelligence
Committee. The Intelligence Oversight Act of 1980 explicitly requires that the
president keep congressional intelligence committees fully and currently
informed of all intelligence activities, which means that Pelosi likely has
seen more classified/NSA information than any other House member. She is also
from perhaps the most liberal district in America.

~~~
wavesounds
Yeah it's like asking the kid with his hand in the cookie jar to sign onto a
bill calling for the lid to be put back on.

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pvnick
It would be interesting to do some data mining on the open secrets data set
for things like this. Has anybody seen any work on identifying statistically
significant funding sources for clusters of representatives based on the way
they vote?

~~~
kumarski
Very true. Wish I had the time to toy around with D3JS.

My goal with starting the google doc was to make it easier for people to
target the companies that fund the politicians.

If everyone who sees this doc, fills in 2 rows, this will be done in a few
minutes.

~~~
dllthomas
A lot of these donors probably donated to the other side, too. "I won't do
business with anyone who funds politicians I don't like, even if they also
fund politicians I do like" is not necessarily a bad policy, but just be aware
that that's what you're adopting if you choose to move your business away from
these donors without also checking out the other side of the coin.

~~~
kumarski
That's a really good point.

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mullingitover
It's fun picturing yesterday's emergency top-secret hearing[1].

"We'd just like all of you in the House to know that we've recorded every
single one of your phone calls and have all your emails on file. If this
amendment passes and our funding gets cut..."

[http://rt.com/usa/nsa-surveillance-amendment-
amash-485/](http://rt.com/usa/nsa-surveillance-amendment-amash-485/)

~~~
socillion
Snowden has alleged that Congress is not affected by NSA surveillance.

Source: top answer at [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/17/edward-
snowden-n...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/17/edward-snowden-nsa-
files-whistleblower)

------
teeja
Here are the final vote results on ROLL CALL 412 (Amash of Michigan Amendment
No. 100) from the House website.

[http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2013/roll412.xml](http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2013/roll412.xml)

~~~
scottdw2
The most interesting part is that the difference in votes is exactly equal to
the number of individuals marked as "not voting".

~~~
teeja
As the guy said at the end of the film _Contact_ , "that is interesting, isn't
it?"

Keith Ellison: "For the government to just collect people's data without any
sense of that individual warrants or merits and investigation of some kind is
a problem. I am pretty disappointed we didn't pass it, but I am pretty
impressed with how well we did. This issue is not over. There will be more
voters and there will be more bills. I feel confident we can perhaps prevail."

[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/25/narrow-defeat-
ns...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/25/narrow-defeat-nsa-
amendment-privacy-advocates)

------
atonse
I honestly didn't expect my representative Chris van Hollen (his Congressional
District is the MD suburbs of Washington, DC, not too far from the NSA), to
vote to de-fund it. It would result in hundreds of lost jobs in his district.
But nevertheless, I regret not making the phone call yesterday.

I hope this bill is offered up again, so I get a chance to tell my
representative my opinion on it.

Edit: probably hundreds of jobs, not thousands.

~~~
Amadou
Remember this wasn't to defund the NSA, just to defund the programs that spy
on us citizens.

~~~
atonse
Correct - but this would still mean tons of lost jobs in this area, right?
Surely, some human's eventually got to analyze the stuff.

~~~
Amadou
The claims are that no one looks at it unless they are specifically chasing
down a lead - c.f. their redefinition of "collecT" from "acquire" to "look it
up in the database of acquired data." Presumably they would have just as many
analysts working cases without this database.

------
tippytop
Sort by state/district and party:
[http://politics.nytimes.com/congress/votes/113/house/1/412](http://politics.nytimes.com/congress/votes/113/house/1/412)

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jaekwon
This is great. We need more public shitlists. Transparency in action!

~~~
kumarski
Shitlist is a great addition to my vocabulary. Thanks!

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sethbannon
Thank you for this. First we need transparency, then we need action.

~~~
kumarski
No problem. Can't wait to turn this into a network graph and shine light on
the fattest nodes.

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wildlogic
I'm curious of the motivation behind Issa's nay. I remember him being at the
forefront of the SOPA rejection along with Chaffetz, Lofgren and Polis, all of
whom voted for the limits.

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kumarski
McCarthy rejected defunding programs that spy on US citizens. Go figure.

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dmak
20 representatives from California, I'm disappointed.

