S.Amdt. 384

SA 384. Mr. WYDEN (for himself, Mr. Udall of Colorado, Mr. Merkley,
and Mr. Udall of New Mexico) submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed to amendment SA 347 proposed by Mr. Reid to the bill S. 990,to
provide for an additional temporary extension of programs under the
Small Business Act and the Small Business Investment Act of 1958, and
for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

At the end, add the following:

SEC. 3. REPORT ON INTELLIGENCE COLLECTION ACTIVITIES.

(a) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) in democratic societies, citizens rightly expect that
their government will not arbitrarily keep information secret
from the public but instead will act with secrecy only in
certain limited circumstances;
(2) the United States Government has an inherent
responsibility to protect American citizens from foreign
threats and sometimes relies on clandestine methods to learn
information about foreign adversaries, and these intelligence
collection methods are often most effective when they remain
secret;
(3) American citizens recognize that their government may
rely on secret intelligence sources and collection methods to
ensure national security and public safety, and American
citizens also expect intelligence activities to be conducted
within the boundaries of publicly understood law;
(4) it is essential for the American public to have access
to enough information to determine how government officials
are interpreting the law, so that voters can ratify or reject
decisions that elected officials make on their behalf;
(5) it is essential that Congress have informed and open
debates about the meaning of existing laws, so that members
of Congress are able to consider whether laws are written
appropriately, and so that members of Congress may be held
accountable by their constituents;
(6) United States Government officials should not secretly
reinterpret public laws and statutes in a manner that is
inconsistent with the public's understanding of these laws,
and should not describe the execution of these laws in a way
that misinforms or misleads the public;
(7) On February 2, 2011, the congressional intelligence
committees received a secret report from the Attorney General
and the Director of National Intelligence that has been
publicly described as pertaining to intelligence collection
authorities that are subject to expiration under section 224
of the USA PATRIOT Act (Public Law 107-56; 115 Stat. 295);
and
(8) while it is entirely appropriate for particular
intelligence collection techniques to be kept secret, the
laws that authorize such techniques, and the United States
Government's official interpretation of these laws, should
not be kept secret but should instead be transparent to the
public, so that these laws can be the subject of informed
public debate and consideration.
(b) Report.--Not later than 60 days after the date of the
enactment of this Act, the Attorney General shall publish in
the Federal Register a report--
(1) that details the legal basis for the intelligence
collection activities described in the February 2, 2011,
report to the congressional intelligence committees; and
(2) that does not describe specific intelligence collection
programs or activities, but that fully describes the legal
interpretations and analysis necessary to understand the
United States Government's official interpretation of the
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1801
et seq.).
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