With the lone exception of Rep. Darrell Issa (R-49), San Diego County’s Congressional delegation voted with the House majority on Thursday in favor of legislation ending the National Security Agency‘s ability to collect and hold telephone metadata and other bulk data.
The so-called USA Freedom Act passed the House 303-121. Issa cast a no vote, while Reps. Duncan Hunter (R-50), Juan Vargas (D-51), Susan Davis (D-52) and Scott Peters (D-53) voted in favor.
“Protecting our country is increasingly difficult and finding the right tools for our intelligence community to combat these threats has proved elusive in recent years. This bill is a bipartisan endeavor and is a step in the right direction,” said Peters, who represents Coronado, La Jolla, Poway and large parts of the City of San Diego.
“It makes significant advances toward protecting the privacy of American citizens by placing real, effective restrictions on government collection of data while putting reasonable burdens on the NSA before they can request information,” he said in a statement.
In addition to ending the NSA’s collection and storage of telephone metadata, the legislation requires the agency to get case-by-case approval from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court before requesting information and data.
Issa originally co-sponsored the measure, but said he ultimately decided to oppose it after changes to the legislation weakened it.
“The original and committee-passed versions of the USA Freedom Act struck a careful balance between our liberty and our security, providing the reforms necessary to restore trust. I was proud to be an original co-sponsor of this bill…Unfortunately, the floor-version of the USA Freedom Act falls short of our goal,” Issa said in a statement after the vote.
Issa represents coastal San Diego from Del Mar north, plus Vista and San Marcos, as well as large parts of South Orange County.
