January 23, 2020 9:30 a.m. 
Oregon Senator Ron Wyden is leading a bipartisan, bicameral coalition of lawmakers proposing strong new reforms they say would protect American’s rights against “unnecessary surveillance”.
Five lawmakers, including Wyden have sponsored the bill, which Wyden said is the first comprehensive legislation of this Congress to reform Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act and prevent abuses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
A release from Wyden said the bill comes ahead of the March 15th expiration of Section 215, which the National Security Agency used to create a secret mass surveillance program that swept up millions of Americans’ phone calls.
Wyden said that “liberty and security aren’t mutually exclusive, and they aren’t partisan either”. Wyden said “the bill preserves authorities the government uses against criminals and terrorists, while putting Americans’ constitutional rights front and center”.
The release said the bill includes a host of reforms including:
*It would permanently end the phone surveillance program, which Wyden said secretly scooped up American’s telephone records for years.
*It would close loopholes and prohibit secret interpretation of the law.
*It would prohibit warrantless collection of geolocation information by intelligence agencies.
*It would respond to issues raised by the Inspector General’s office that independent attorneys have access to all documents, records, and proceedings of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, to provide more oversight and transparency.