USA Freedom Act

USA FREEDOM Act

Long title	To reform the authorities of the Federal Government to require the production of certain business records, conduct electronic surveillance, use pen registers and trap and trace devices, and use other forms of information gathering for foreign intelligence, counterterrorism, and criminal purposes, and for other purposes.
Acronyms (colloquial)	USA FREEDOM
Nicknames	Freedom Act
Enacted by	the 114th United States Congress
Citations
Public law	[http://legislink.org/us/pl-114-23 Pub.L. 114–23]
Codification
Acts amended	Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 USA PATRIOT Act, USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005 National Security Act of 1947 Fair Credit Reporting Act
U.S.C. sections amended	18 U.S.C. § 2709, 18 U.S.C. § 3511, 15 U.S.C. § 1681u, 50 U.S.C. § 1881a, 12 U.S.C. § 3414, and others.
Legislative history
Introduced in the House as www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/2048 by Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R, WI-5) with 150 House and 21 Senate co-sponsors on April 28, 2015 Committee consideration by Judiciary, Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Financial Services, United States House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security and Investigations Passed the House on May 13, 2015 (Yeas: 338; Nays: 88) Passed the Senate on June 2, 2015 (Yeas: 67; Nays: 32) Signed into law by President Barack Obama on June 2, 2015

The USA Freedom Act (www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/2048, Pub.L. 114–23) is a U.S. law enacted on June 2, 2015 that restored in modified form several provisions of the Patriot Act, which had expired the day before. The act imposes some new limits on the bulk collection of telecommunication metadata on U.S. citizens by American intelligence agencies, including the National Security Agency. It also restores authorization for roving wiretaps and tracking lone wolf terrorists. The title of the act originally was a ten-letter backronym (USA FREEDOM) that stood for Uniting and Strengthening America by Fulfilling Rights and Ending Eavesdropping, Dragnet-collection and Online Monitoring Act.

The bill was originally introduced in both houses of the U.S. Congress on October 29, 2013, following publication of classified NSA memos describing bulk data collection programs leaked by Edward Snowden that June. When it was re-introduced in the 114th Congress (2015–2016), it was described by the bill sponsors as "a balanced approach" while being questioned for extending the Patriot Act through the end of 2019. Supporters of the bill said that the House Intelligence Committee and House leadership would insist on reauthorizing all Patriot Act powers except bulk collection under Section 215 of the Patriot Act. Critics assert that mass surveillance of the content of Americans' communication will continue under Section 702 of FISA which does not expire until 2017 and Executive Order 12333 due to the "unstoppable surveillance-industrial complex" despite the fact that a bipartisan majority of the House had previously voted to close backdoor mass surveillance.

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