“I supported the USA FREEDOM Act because it may have been be the best opportunity to reform the metadata collection program while maintaining the government’s ability to use this tool to prevent terrorist attacks at home and abroad.“Key reforms in the bill would have made the program more transparent and protected privacy, most notably the requirement that a FISA Court order must be secured before conducting targeted queries of telephone metadata being held by phone companies. I also strongly supported measures to allow private companies to more fully report the number of times they receive government requests for information, which these companies believe is an important transparency measure.
“I had some concerns about the bill, notably the length of time telecom companies would retain data and ensuring that a FISA Court advocate could not unreasonably delay action by the court. But I was confident those issues would have been resolved through discussions with industry and through the amendment process. I look forward to continuing to work on this issue.”