THE LEDE: House lawmakers are eyeing new plans to continue the fight over expansive government surveillance programs.
On Tuesday, Reps. Ted Poe (R-Texas) and Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) are planning to reintroduce a standalone bill that mirrors their amendment to the USA Freedom Act, which would have expanded the National Security Agency (NSA) reform bill to cover additional legal authorities. The measure is expected to tackle Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act — which the NSA has relied on for its “Upstream” and “PRISM” data collection schemes — as well as ban the government from forcing tech companies to include “backdoors” into their products. That’s similar to a measure that overwhelmingly passed the House last year, when it was added to a defense spending bill.
