Representative Justin Amash, a Michigan Republican, has proposed to limit the National Security Agency’s funds that it uses to collect data on telephone calls made by U.S. citizens unless a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court order stipulates that the records pertain to an individual under investigation.  His proposal is backed by Representatives John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, Mick Mulvaney, a South Carolina Republican, Jared Polis, a Colorado Democrat, and Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican.

While another amendment offered by Florida Republican Representative Richard Nugent proposes that the NSA will be prohibited from using funds in the almost $600 billion measure to “acquire, monitor or store the contents” of electronic communications by “a United States person.” Nor could the NSA gather such data for the purposes of targeting an individual in the U.S.

Fairness rejected by The White House?

Though the Obama Administration welcomes debate on the balance between national security and individual privacy, White House press secretary Jay Carney is calling for the House to reject the Amash Amendment and was quoted saying that, “We urge the House to reject the Amash Amendment, and instead move forward with an approach that appropriately takes into account the need for a reasoned review of what tools can best secure the nation.”

What’s interesting is why the Obama Administration has publicly opposed such an amendment that aims to regulate the NSA’s reach — not entirely cripple it, but just allow it snoop around justly, in favor of the privacy of the people.  Does this mean that the government wants to continue spying on everyone and citizens just have to get used to it?

“There’s some extremely dangerous arguments here that are going on that involve privacy, personal freedom, security.  This debate is here and for some of the notions to some of these things, like a phone call that you make, somehow get some kind of alert, it’s just like far fetched scenarios,” says John Casaretto, SiliconANGLE contributing editor.

• A fresh can of privacy worms

“What the NSA is doing, is if this is accepted by Congress, the courts… fundamentally is changing the relationship between the citizen and the government.  Do we stand by and kind of support these tools of intelligence here, or do we stand for supporting in preserving our rights?  There’s a lot of questions here, like, how much should we know about, how much can we know about it now, and in the future?  There’s going to be a lot of debate here and I think for the most part, this kind of debate is good,” Casaretto explains.

Casaretto also states that people in general do not want to be spied on, but if the government keeps playing the terrorist card, it’s hard for people to oppose the government’s spying.  This is where the issue of limitation comes into play, especially when there’s no specified demarcations as to what the government can access.  From what we know now, there’s no limit to what the government can see, and the government wants to access all your data.

Given the Obama Administration’s clear opposition of the Amash Amendment, Casaretto still believes that Amash can get the House to vote in his favor if he is able to get more support from both the Republicans and the Democrats.

For more of Casaretto’s Breaking Analysis, check out the NEwsDesk video below:

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