USA Freedom Act

The USA Freedom Act (H.R. 2048, Pub. L. 114–23 (text) (PDF)) is a U.S. law that became effective on June 2, 2015. It changed parts of the Patriot Act, which stopped working the day before. This new law added limits to how much information about phone calls and messages the government could collect from U.S. citizens. It also allowed certain types of secret listening and tracking of people who might pose a threat.

The idea for this law started in October 2013, after some secret documents were made public by Edward Snowden (Edward Snowden). These documents showed that the government was collecting large amounts of data. The law was meant to find a balance between keeping the country safe and protecting people’s rights.

The USA Freedom Act also required the special court that deals with secret intelligence matters, called the FISA court, to share some of its important decisions. This would help create rules for future cases and give more guidance on what is allowed in secret monitoring.

Background

After some important news stories, many people in Congress thought they needed to change the rules about how the government watches people. They wrote over 20 different bills to talk about this.

One person, Representative Jim Sensenbrenner, helped create a law called the Patriot Act after the September 11 terrorist attacks. He said it was time to stop the National Security Agency's program that collected lots of phone data from Americans. He thought they used these powers in the wrong way.

Purpose

The USA Freedom Act was created to stop the large collection of phone records by the National Security Agency (NSA). It tried to make laws created by the FISA court more open and fair. The law also aimed to let a special person speak for privacy issues in court.

Some people thought the law still allowed phone companies to keep records that the NSA could look at. The law did not change other rules that some believed hurt people’s rights. It tried to limit some government programs and let companies like Google and Facebook share more about government requests for information. The bill’s supporters said it would change a part of the Patriot Act to stop collecting lots of phone records, but still let the government get important information for investigating terrorism.

Provisions and elements of the Act

The USA Freedom Act was passed in 2015 to change some laws about spying in the United States. It changed parts of an older law called the Patriot Act.

The main goal of this law was to add new limits to how much information about people's phone calls and messages U.S. spy agencies could collect. One big change was that phone companies could keep this information instead of the government.

The law also created new rules about how the government can ask for this information and made it harder for them to look through all the data without a good reason. It added more checks to protect people's privacy while still letting the government find important information to keep the country safe.

Passing the bill

113th Congress (2013–14)

The USA Freedom Act was introduced in both the House and Senate in 2013. It aimed to change how certain surveillance powers were used. The House passed a version of the bill in 2014, but it was blocked in the Senate later that year.

The bill included ideas to change how phone records were collected and stored, and to add more checks and balances to the surveillance system. However, many people were concerned that the changes didn’t go far enough to protect privacy.

114th Congress (2015–16)

A new version of the bill was introduced in 2015. This version passed the House in May 2015. The Senate passed it in June 2015, and it became law shortly after.

The final law ended some parts of the Patriot Act, like the bulk collection of phone records, but kept others in place. It also added some new rules to make the surveillance system more transparent and accountable.

National security and trade groups

Some groups that focus on national security and technology supported the bill. They believed it found a balance between protecting national security and privacy.

Civil liberties advocates

Many groups that focus on protecting civil liberties had mixed feelings about the final version of the bill. Some felt it didn’t go far enough to protect privacy, while others saw it as a step in the right direction.

Proposed Reauthorization

In 2019, there were discussions about making some parts of the law permanent. The House passed an extension in 2020, and the Senate passed a version with some extra privacy protections. The House was expected to consider the Senate’s version next.