Coalition Letter on USA Freedom Act (June 2014)

All of the undersigned organizations believed the original version of the USA FREEDOM Act (H.R. 3361 and S. 1599) introduced in both the House and the Senate was an important step towards comprehensive reform. However, we are deeply concerned about the changes that the House Rules Committee made to the bill prior to passage, which substantially weakened the version of the bill that had passed with unanimous support from both the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees. As a result of that strong concern, many of the undersigned withdrew their support, as did half of the bill’s sponsors.