WASHINGTON – Colorado’s seven House representatives unanimously voted in favor of curbing the National Security Agency’s surveillance powers, but were on the losing side of a 217-205 vote late Wednesday night.
The amendment would have struck down the NSA’s ability to use the Patriot Act to collect phone records of individuals not under investigation.
“It is … important that (intelligence) agencies do not violate the constitutional rights of American citizens by targeting individuals who are not even suspected of any criminal activity,” said U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Cortez.
Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., introduced the legislation this month, earning it the nickname the Amash amendment.
The White House urged the House not to pass the Amash amendment, calling it in a July 23 statement an “effort … to dismantle one of our intelligence community’s counterterrorism tools.”
Although the Amash amendment was defeated, the House passed a related one by U.S. Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., in an overwhelming majority of 409-12. It prohibits the NSA from using the defense appropriations act’s funds to gather U.S. citizens’ communications data.
The controversy first surfaced after NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked details of the U.S. government gathering intelligence information about other countries and its own citizens in early June.
Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo., has long opposed government surveillance, and he welcomed the bipartisan effort to address the issue, said spokesman Mike Saccone.
“The U.S. House of Representatives’ bipartisan vote (Wednesday) should be a wake-up call for the White House,” Udall, D-Colo., said in a news release.
As a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Udall introduced a similar bill last month requiring the government to prove a link of terrorism or espionage before collecting data about Americans.
“The NSA’s collection of millions of Americans’ phone-call records is the type of overreach I have warned about for years,” he said in a June 14 news release.
Defense bill approved
The Amash amendment first began as a bill, but later was adopted into the defense appropriations proposal. The House voted to pass the entire proposal, without the NSA amendment, Wednesday night with a 315-109 majority. Four of Colorado’s seven representatives voted in its favor, including Tipton.
“This legislation ensures that America remains at the forefront of technological advances through research and development, training and production,” he said in Wednesday’s news release.
The defense appropriations bill sets up the Defense Department’s spending for the 2014 fiscal year, a total of $595 billion.
The bill included an amendment by U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colorado Springs, preventing the furlough of Department of Defense’s civilian employees after Oct. 1.
“I want to make sure the Obama administration can no longer play politics with the lives and jobs of our civilian defense workers,” he said on the House floor Wednesday.
The Department of Defense is the nation’s largest employer with more than 700,000 civilian employees in addition to active-duty military and the National Guard and Reserve forces.
Paige Jones is a student at American University in Washington, D.C., and an intern for The Durango Herald. Reach her at [email protected].
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