

Why lawmakers just voted against their own bill to reform the NSA - Libertatea
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/05/22/why-76-lawmakers-just-voted-against-their-own-bill-to-reform-the-nsa/

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pdenya
So the House Committee on Rules committee butchered this bill to the point
where it actively went against the legislative intent. In case anyone is
curious, here's the current members of the House Committee on Rules:

\- Pete Sessions, Texas, Chairman (R)

\- Virginia Foxx, North Carolina Vice Chair (R)

\- Rob Bishop, Utah (R)

\- Tom Cole, Oklahoma (R)

\- Rob Woodall, Georgia (R)

\- Rich Nugent, Florida (R)

\- Daniel Webster, Florida (R)

\- Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Florida (R)

\- Michael C. Burgess, Texas (R)

\- Louise Slaughter, New York, Ranking Member (D)

\- James P. McGovern, Massachusetts (D)

\- Alcee Hastings, Florida (D)

\- Jared Polis, Colorado (D)

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pavel_lishin
It would be nice if Congress had a concept of a "code freeze".

This quote as also odd:

> _“While far from perfect, this bill is an unambiguous statement of
> congressional intent to rein in the out-of-control NSA, " said Laura W.
> Murphy, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Washington
> legislative office._

A statement of congressional intent sounds like asking someone nicely.

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walshemj
In a parliamentary system the analogy of a code freeze would be a "vote" on
the substantive motion.

At the moment the bill is in committee and is being amended - I trust that who
suggests and votes for amendments is a matter of public record? if not then
the USA has a lot more to worry about that the NSA.

~~~
snark42
Except in the US after Congress and the Senate pass the bill a conference
committee gets to make the two versions match so I believe the "vote" on the
substantive motion couldn't occur until it's in conference.

Also the votes for amendments may only be recorded as voice vote (not a roll
call I believe) which means you wouldn't know who voted for what. Who offered
the amendment should be public record.

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pertinhower
Why do news stories like this never link to the actual text of the bill? Isn't
it a little worrying when the participants in a democracy consider their
governance "over their head" or simply boring? It seems symptomatic of the
broader problem the bill is meant to curb: that we've let our rulers get away
from us and left them dabbling in their own hidden sandbox.

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Todd
Is there any way to tell who is responsible for the watered down sections that
allow for bulk data collection?

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bradleyjg
After a period of major reform at the end of the 19th century, and especially
since the procedural struggles over civil rights legislation in the 1960s,
power in the House has been increasingly concentrated in the hands of the
Speaker. So it is a good bet that whoever was responsible had Boehner's
acquiescence if not outright support.

The Speaker in turn answers to the caucus which selects him, and Republicans
in particular by and large hold to the Hastert rule which says that nothing
should be brought to the floor unless it has support of a majority of the
majority.

~~~
cb18
So what is meant to be an approximation of the will of the people, becomes
under the Hastert Rule, an approximation of the will of the people so long as
the people's will meets the approval of a select group of ~25% of the people's
representatives.

~~~
vonmoltke
The greatest flaw of representative democracy is that the people's will must
meet the approval of some or all of their elected representatives. Due to the
many and varied issues that come across the legislative bodies, you will
inevitably have issues where the majority of the people are at odds with the
majority of representatives. Every candidate in an election is a compromise;
the voter agrees with them on some issues, but not others. The bigger
Congressional districts get, the worse the problem becomes.

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squozzer
Typical legislative sleight-of-hand - welcome to the sausage factory. Further
developments will probably reveal that the new law enshrines the status quo.

~~~
mhurron
Here you go -

[http://www.wral.com/house-poised-to-pass-curbs-on-nsa-
survei...](http://www.wral.com/house-poised-to-pass-curbs-on-nsa-
surveillance/13666020/)

"NSA officials were pleased with the bill for another reason: The new
arrangement will give them access to mobile calling records they did not have
under the old program."

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Create
We begin therefore where they are determined not to end, with the question
whether any form of democratic self-government, anywhere, is consistent with
the kind of massive, pervasive, surveillance into which the Unites States
government has led not only us but the world.

This should not actually be a complicated inquiry.

[http://snowdenandthefuture.info/events.html](http://snowdenandthefuture.info/events.html)

~~~
Karunamon
Would you kindly stop spamming this link into every tangentially related
article?

