Rep Schiff: If surveillance reform fails in Congress, President Obama should act alone

Rep Adam Schiff (D-CA), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, believes that if the Senate enacts an extension of the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of call records then it’s finally time for the Obama Administration to take action: It should, he says, shut down the program unilaterally.

“I think they should end the program, and find an alternate means to get the information,” he said. The Obama Administration, Rep Schiff said, has insisted it needs special legal authorities from Congress to end the surveillance program, and has voiced concerns about "the telecommunications companies’ willingness” to comply without them. The USA Freedom Act would end the government’s bulk collection and storage of information, and instead leave the call data with the companies to be accessed with a court warrant. But Rep Schiff says the Obama Administration has still not made a persuasive case that congressional legislation is absolutely necessary for the government to end the controversial program exposed by Edward Snowden nearly two years ago. What’s more, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, an independent oversight board within the executive branch that investigated the NSA’s surveillance and judged it to be ineffective, has also said President Barack Obama can end the program at any time of his choosing – and should. So, Rep Schiff says, if reform efforts fail on the Hill, "That's where they should go."