Thursday, January 16, 2014

Expect (moderate) NSA reforms in Obama's NSA speech Friday


Background: Washington PostUSA TodaySlate

Obama is expected to announce reforms to the NSA in a speech he will give at the Justice Department on Friday. Among these proposed changes are new restrictions on the collection of American phone records and greater privacy protections for non-US citizens, a move aimed at quelling European fears and outrage at the NSA's data collection programs. However, many expect that these changes will be modest in scope and far from a sweeping overhaul of the NSA due to the fact that Obama must strike a balance between appealing to an American public upset with the NSA's privacy violations and retaining the support of his national security circles, who believe that changes to what they see as an essential counter-terrorism tool will needlessly diminish the agency's counter-terrorism capabilities.

Perhaps more noteworthy is the fact that Obama is likely to leave much of the responsibility for coming up with NSA reforms to a divided Congress instead of pursuing changes to the agency himself. If I'm not mistaken, I believe he does have the authority to pursue an overhaul of the agency, and yet here he is, giving the responsibility to Congress. Does he really believe that Congress will better represent the will of the people regarding NSA matters, or is he simply trying to shift some of the blame over to Congress? Hmm. In addition, some are criticizing him for giving up too much of his executive powers by turning this issue over to Congress, but seeing as the president has increased his power relative to Congress over the past few decades, might this move be shifting the balance of power back toward equilibrium?

Do you think the changes Obama will announce to the NSA should be greater or lesser than the changes people expect him to propose? What do you make of his shifting of the responsibility for reforms over to Congress? How, if at all, will it affect the balance of power between the president and Congress in the future?

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I think, if anything, the NSA will have the biggest bone to pick with the points Obama touched on yesterday. I will say that Obama actually did leave things fairly vague, which will allow him...and Congress...to interpret the points to their discretion.

For instance, I'm left wondering what the "third party" that Obama is suggesting we consolidate information into would be. Service providers already out there? Or some new company? Who pays for it? Does Congress appropriate it (yes) or does it come directly out of the NSA budget (possibly).

This post went up before the speech itself, now that the speech has been given, do people think Obama played it too safe or did he make some much needed changes? Will they last?

Going forward, the Attorney General will have more power over the NSA in terms of oversight (or so it appears). Will this fix the problem? Or will things continue as they have been?

As for Obama taking more power, I don't think that was a big issue of yesterday's speech. It's up to Congress to create reforms, and if the people keep demanding them, perhaps they will come.

Unknown said...

Correction: It's up to Congress to create lasting reforms.)

Unknown said...

(Late comment--malware threat > blog activity)I was hoping to comment on this post earlier, especially in light of the Republican National Committee resolution that renounced the NSA surveillance programs. Additionally, Obama briefly touched on NSA reform in his address last night. Politically, I assume that he's attempting to perform damage control on the whole issue. In my opinion, the reforms he has proposed are rather vague and ambiguous, as was the text of his speeches. Obama is very hesitant to draw a line where surveillance stands (perhaps he's waiting for a court ruling). And if he is worried about public backlash about that, he's grabbing more headlines with minimum wage talks and the like. But as for the NSA and its programs, I expect the coming news regarding the NSA to center heavily on the imminent (and current legal battles). There's the current conflict between the two court rulings in Washington and New York, and there are, of course, many lawsuits that we should be on the lookout for. Rand Paul, and the more libertarian group of the Republican party, are at least one of the parties pushing a lawsuit (Rand Paul's being a class-action lawsuit that he has invited his supporters to join). In my opinion, the RNC made a bit of a fool of itself with the resolution a few days ago; it's a purely political move on their part, considering past Republican stances on surveillance and security programs. As for Congress, I don't expect too much right now, and I predict that the resurgence of NSA news will come from the courts and not from Capitol Hill.