After work was delayed last week on the military's budget plan for 2014, the bill is back on the schedule this week in the U.S. House, as lawmakers in both parties try to fashion new limits on surveillance by the National Security Agency.
The proposed amendments, which come at a time when it seems like there might be growing support among rank and file lawmakers for restrictions on the NSA use of telephone metadata and more, will be taken up Monday afternoon before the House Rules Committee - but it's unclear if GOP leaders will allow the plans to be voted on in the full House this week.
"This surveillance state must crumble," said Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI), a more Libertarian Republican who has been leading a bipartisan charge against the NSA.
Amash, along with members in both parties, has offered two different amendments to the military's budget bill for next year, which would not allow the NSA to conduct certain surveillance - here is the text of both amendments:
"None of the funds made available by this Act may be used to collect tangible things pursuant to an order under section 501 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1861) if such things do not pertain to a person who is the subject of an investigation described in such section."
"None of the funds made available by this Act may be used to execute a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court order pursuant to section 501 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1861) that does not include the following sentence: ‘‘This Order limits the collection of any tangible things (including tele7 phone numbers dialed, telephone numbers of incoming calls, and the duration of calls) that may be authorized to be collected pursuant to this Order to those tangible things that pertain to a person who is the subject of an investigation described in section 501 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1861)."
While there has been a general uproar in the Congress over the NSA work in the wake of leaks by American fugitive Edward Snowden, last week those worries seemed to gain a bit of momentum in the Congress, though it remains difficult to figure out whether opponents would remain a distinct minority if votes were allowed on the issue.
Soon after the NSA leaks occurred, the House Rules Committee refused to allow a vote on NSA issues on a major defense policy bill; now that resolve is being tested on the military's budget bill for next year.
Step one will be whether the Rules Committee - historically viewed as an arm of the Speaker - allows those votes or not.
If not, Amash has been making rumblings that he might lead a rebellion of members in both parties to block the military budget bill from getting to the floor of the House.
The skirmish over the NSA comes just a few days after a secret intelligence court renewed the order that forces major phone companies to turn over telephone call metadata to the NSA - in fact, the nation's top intelligence official announced that in a news release last Friday.
"Seems to me there's a huge market for a phone company that doesn't share your personal data with the government," Amash wrote on Twitter.
