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House Passes Amendment To Cut Off Funding For NSA’s “Backdoor” Searches (techcrunch.com)
80 points by user_235711 on June 20, 2014 | hide | past | favorite | 5 comments



Even as the resident apologist for NSA activities, I have to say this bill seems entirely appropriate to me.

Information gathered under FISA 702 shouldn't be able to be searched for American data without a proper search warrant, and preventing the undermining of encryption standards seems like a net win for our own cybersecurity, since it's hard to have faith that bad actors couldn't one day leverage the very backdoors that the government implants.

This bill strikes a good balance between privacy and national security, demonstrates knowledge of how 702 has been used as an end run around the rules for domestic searches, and enhances our nation's cybersecurity posture rather than harming it.

Too bad this likely won't pass the Senate, but at least it's a blueprint for future efforts to preserve our lead in cyber warfare while protecting Constitutional principles.


Very unlikely to pass the Senate, since 2009 they haven't been passing budgets in election years (or 2011).

That is, rather than going on record on the various appropriations bills like this one, huge "must pass" (or the government "shuts down") continuing resolutions are passed.


It appears that the people would prefer to have the government continue like this in perpetuity, rather than endure a shutdown. I find it dismaying that your characterization of the current state of affairs seems entirely accurate.


It's about time for that...


Watch for the next couple weeks or months, this will be reversed. Some of its champions will mysteriously stay silent on the reversal.

Those are the ones that were blackmailed by the NSA.




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