Section 215 of the Patriot Act Expires in June. Is Congress Ready?Nadia Kayyali All of these sections are concerning, but Section 215 takes the cake. Its the authority that the NSA, with the FBIs help, has interpreted to allow the U.S. government to vacuum up the call records of millions of innocent people. Its also been the focus of most of the NSA reform efforts in Congress over the last year and a half. But if there were ever a time to reform the NSA, its nowbecause a vote for reauthorization, without comprehensive reform of NSA spying, will very clearly be a vote against the Constitution. NSA Spying is Not a Partisan Issue, and it Must be Dealt With There have been many legislative efforts to reform the NSA over the last year and a half. But none of them have been successful. Most recently, in December, the Senate failed to move the USA FREEDOM Act forward for a final vote. What lawmakers said about USA FREEDOM, and what they are saying now, gives us some idea of where were headed over the next few months. One of the most notable no votes on USA FREEDOM came from Sen. Rand Paul, who objected to the fact that the bill extended the sunset of Section 215 by two years. Sen. Paul has been a vocal critic of the Patriot Act and NSA spying, and has made it clear that he will vote against reauthorization. The question now is whether he and other Republican critics will be able to push for genuine reformsomething essential in a Congress that is now majority Republican in both houses. And thats where things get troublesome. The cloture vote on USA FREEDOM was a preview for the kind of anti-reform rhetoric we can expect to hear over the next few months. Some civil liberties advocates thought the bill didnt go far enoughbut the lawmakers who voted against it mostly thought it went too far. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell proclaimed on the Senate floor that now is not the time to be considering legislation that takes away the exact tools we need to combat ISIL. Similarly, Sen. Marco Rubiowho is now on record as stating that he thinks Section 215 should never expire stated the world is as dangerous as ever, and extremists are being cultivated and recruited right here at home. This legislation would significantly weaken and, in some cases, entirely do away with some of the most important counter-terrorism capabilities at our disposal, which is why I will not support it. The rhetoric isnt confined to the Senate floor. After a man was arrested for allegedly plotting a D.C. shooting spree, Speaker of the House John Boehner claimed that we would have never known about this had it not been for the FISA program and our ability to collect information on people who pose an imminent threat, even though the criminal complaint against the arrestee states that it was a government informant that supplied information about his plans. Why The Focus on Section 215 Section 215 is an obvious target for reform. As the pro-NSA rhetoric reaches a fever pitch, its important to remember that we have little to no evidence that bulk collection of telephone call records under Section 215 has ever stopped a terrorist attack. In fact, even the administration agreesits not necessary. The White House admitted that the government can accomplish its goals without bulk telephone records collection. Whats more, the Presidents Review Board said the information contributed to terrorist investigations by the use of section 215 telephony meta-data was not essential to preventing attacks. And the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board could not identify one time when bulk collection under Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act made a concrete difference in the outcome of a counterterrorism investigation. Similarly, an in-depth analysis of 225 cases of people charged with terrorism found that the contribution of NSAs bulk surveillance programs to these cases was minimal. If that werent enough, Senators with access to classified information have also argued that the program is unnecessary. In an amicus brief in EFFs case First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles v. NSA, Sens. Ron Wyden, Mark Udall, and Martin Heinrich stated that, while the administration has claimed that bulk collection is necessary to prevent terrorism, they have reviewed the bulk-collection program extensively, and none of the claims appears to hold up to scrutiny. Whats more, claims that collection of call records is not that big of an invasion of privacy are simply untrue. As we point out in our amicus brief in Klayman v. Obama, The call records collected by the government are not just metadatathey are intimate portraits of the lives of millions of Americans. In one short-term study of a small sample of call detail information, researchers at Stanford were able to identify one plausible inference of a subject obtaining an abortion; one subject with a heart condition; one with multiple sclerosis; and the owner of a specific brand of firearm. In fact, former director of the NSA and CIA Michael Hayden recently admitted: We kill people based on metadata. And former NSA General Counsel Stu Baker said: metadata absolutely tells you everything about somebodys life. If you have enough metadata, you dont really need content. What Real Reform Looks Like Congress needs to pass comprehensive reform. EFF has continued to call for legislation that would: A no vote on Section 215or even the prospect of a no vote over the coming monthswould force the NSAs defenders to take reform seriously. Whats Next? Even though the Section 215 vote is many months away, its important to let Congress know what were expectinga no vote on reauthorization, or any other legislation that allows suspicionless surveillance of millions of innocent people. In the meantime, as new legislation emerges, EFF will fight to ensure that all bad bills die, and push hard for any good bills to advance. Please visit the Electronic Frontier Foundation, where this first appeared, for the latest news in digital privacy and civil liberties. 