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Two key House committees on Monday announced markups...

Two key House committees on Monday announced markups of surveillance bills. The House Judiciary Committee plans to mark up the USA Freedom Act (HR-3361), which would strongly curb U.S. phone surveillance, introduced last fall. Judiciary lawmakers plan to introduce an…

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amendment in the nature of a substitute (http://1.usa.gov/1okqc3e) Wednesday at the 1 p.m. session, the committee said in a news release. The substitute “prohibits bulk collection under Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act (Section 501 of FISA [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act]), prohibits bulk collection under the FISA Pen Register/Trap and Trace statute (Section 402 of FISA) and National Security Letter statutes, authorizes the government to acquire telephone records stored by telephone providers but only with prior approval from the FISA Court on a case-by-case basis, increases privacy protections at the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), and clarifies privacy protections for Americans under Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act,” the news release said (http://1.usa.gov/1iVA3av). Six Judiciary members -- Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va.; ranking member John Conyers, D-Mich.; Crime Subcommittee Chairman Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., the original bill author; subcommittee ranking member Bobby Scott, D-Va.; and Reps. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., and Randy Forbes, R-Va. -- issued a joint statement calling the substitute “a bipartisan solution” that’s the product of months of cooperation. Also Monday, House Intelligence Committee leaders announced plans to mark up the FISA Transparency and Modernization Act of 2014 (HR-4291) Thursday morning in a closed session in HVC-304. The committees have sharply disagreed throughout the past half-year over which has jurisdiction over FISA matters.