Buried toward the bottom of the Committee report is a taser shot to the heart of the honorable John G. Roberts Jr., Chief Justice of the United States, who in the current system makes all appointments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court
Recommendation 28, Item 4.
Congress should change the process by which judges are appointed to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, with the appointment power divided among the Supreme Court Justices.
This rousing endorsement of the appointments that Chief Justice Roberts has made by its existence places a considerable amount of blame for the current mess on the judges who have been too compliant with the NSA and other security agencies, and Justice Roberts' judgement. Further down they are a bit gentle, but telling none the less
The first involves the potential risks associated with giving a single person, even the Chief Justice, the authority to appoint all the members of an important court. The second involves the fact that ten of the current eleven FISC judges, all of whom were appointed by the current Chief Justice were appointed to the bench by Republican presidents. Although the role of a judge is to follow the law and not to make political judgements, Republican-appointed and Democratic-appointed judges sometimes have divergent views, including on issues involving privacy, civil liberties and claims of national security. There is therefore a legitimate reason for concern if, as is not the case, the judges on the FISC turn out to come disproportionately from either Republican or Democratic appointees.
What they recommend is to give the appointing authority within a circuit to the Supreme Court justice who supervises that circuit. Not happy with the judgement of Justice Roberts at all they were.