Stunningly interesting exceptions and, if I'm reading this right, not necessarily an improvement:<p>"Repeals the USA PATRIOT Act ... except with respect to ... the acquisition of intelligence information concerning an entity not substantially composed of U.S. persons that is engaged in the international proliferation of weapons of mass destruction."<p>"Requires orders ... to direct ... any person or entity must
furnish all information, facilities, or technical assistance necessary to accomplish such surveillance<p>- in a manner to protect its secrecy and produce a minimum of interference with the services<p>- that such carrier, landlord, custodian, or other person is providing the target of such surveillance<p>- (thereby retaining the ability to conduct surveillance on such targets regardless of the type of communications methods or devices being used by the subject of the surveillance)."
All the negative waves [1] :-) This is primarily a bill where some folks can vote for it, feeling confident it won't pass, and get re-elected by "trying to shut down those rogue intelligence agencies." But it can also get people elected, just like the tea partiers got elected on the fear of government over spending, liberals can get elected on the fear of government oversight. Mixing up the opinions in congress is always a good thing in my opinion.<p>[1] Yes a Kelly's Heroes reference.
<i>Repeals the USA PATRIOT Act</i><p>Okay, so there's effectively zero chance that this bill will ever pass.<p>The PATRIOT act was a power grab, and governments don't willingly give up power. The only way this would pass is if the members of congress were in danger of not getting reelected if it didn't.
This bill was introduced by Rep. Rush Holt, a Democrat from New Jersey (12th District). Here's a statement from him on surveillance issues:<p><a href="http://holt.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1204&Itemid=18" rel="nofollow">http://holt.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view...</a>
in order for a bill to become law,<p>1 - it has to be agreed by a couple of committees,
2 - exact copies have to be passed by the two chambers of the congress, each of which are controlled by opposed factions, which disagree about almost anything and rarely compromised
3 - it has to be not vetoed by the president.<p>So probably it won't pass. In fact, I wonder how can they get anything passed these days.
A couple of laws will never be enough to stop the NSA's antics (including probably also the CIA's and FBI's).<p>It's out of control, anything short of "desperate" measures will not correct the issue.