Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR), Mark Udall (D-CO) and Martin Heinrich (D-NM) are not happy with the NSA "reform" bill that passed the Senate Intelligence Committee earlier this month. They detail their principle objection in
this op-ed in
The New York Times.
The usefulness of the bulk collection program has been greatly exaggerated. We have yet to see any proof that it provides real, unique value in protecting national security. In spite of our repeated requests, the N.S.A. has not provided evidence of any instance when the agency used this program to review phone records that could not have been obtained using a regular court order or emergency authorization.
Despite this, the surveillance reform bill recently ratified by the Senate Intelligence Committee would explicitly permit the government to engage in dragnet collection as long as there were rules about when officials could look at these phone records. It would also give intelligence agencies wide latitude to conduct warrantless searches for Americans’ phone calls and emails. [...]
Congress has a crucial opportunity to reassert constitutionally guaranteed liberties by reforming the N.S.A.’s overbroad collection of Americans’ personal data. But the Intelligence Committee bill squanders this chance. It would enable some of the most constitutionally questionable surveillance activities now exposed to the public eye. The Senate should be reining in these programs, not giving them a stamp of approval.
These senators have authored legislation that would halt warrantless “backdoor searches” of Americans’ communications by the NSA, and would create a “constitutional advocate” in the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to basically represent the constitution when the court "is considering major questions of law or constitutional interpretation."
This is the same approach Sen. Patrick Leahy has take from his position at chair of the Judiciary Committee in his NSA reform bill. The Senate is likely to take action on one or both of these bills in the first half of next year.