Here's Exactly Who to Blame in Congress for Authorizing Government Spying

Philip Bump

The National Security Agency and the FBI don't bear all the responsibility for the revelation that Verizon is turning phone records over to the government. That responsibility lies with the members of Congress who voted for the PATRIOT Act, as well as extensions of it and the provisions related to collecting those records. Over 100 people currently serving in the House and Senate voted for the original Act in 2001. Last year, over 300 voted to extend a key provision.

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We looked at seven Congressional actions generally and five in particular to assess how the government's power to collect data has evolved. From October 2001 to last December, Congress continually voted to expand or continue the government's power to collect private data, ostensibly to bolster efforts to stop terrorist activity. In addition to the PATRIOT Act, Congress has also renewed provisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA — the law that established the court which issued the Verizon order.

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The seven votes were:

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(The "Medicare" bill, above, was gutted and re-written to accommodate three PATRIOT-related measures.)

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There have been attempts to revise or curtail the rules, from their inception. In 2011, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky tried to amend the PATRIOT Act to limit its power. Last year, senators attempted to halt FISA data collection. In neither case did the rules pass.

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We looked at votes by sitting Congressmembers on five bills critical to the existing governmental security tools. At the bottom of this post is a spreadsheet showing those votes — with names. But here's how they broke out.

The first graph for each bill shows the vote breakdown: red for those supporting increased surveillance tools; blue for opposed. The second graph shows the vote in both chambers by party.

The PATRIOT Act

Total current members who voted: 153 Total current members who supported the bill: 118

No sitting Republicans who were in Congress in 2001 voted against the PATRIOT Act. More sitting Democrats supported it than opposed.

Votes by sitting members

Support and opposition by party

PATRIOT Act Reauthorization, 2005

Total current members who voted: 260 Total current members who supported the bill: 151

Currently sitting Democrats were more likely to oppose the extension than to approve it. Several Republican House members opposed the extension, but no Senators did.

Votes by sitting members

Support and opposition by party

FISA Amendments, 2008

Total current members who voted: 304 Total current members who supported the bill: 191

Only one Republican voted against the amendments, which authorized the government to conduct sweeps like the one in the Verizon case.

Votes by sitting members

Support and opposition by party

PATRIOT Act Extension, 2011

Total current members who voted: 430 Total current members who supported the bill: 265

A larger number of sitting Republicans opposed the extension than any of the other three. That includes Senators Murkowski, Paul, Heller, and Lee. Nineteen Democrats who opposed the FISA amendments in 2008 voted in support of it under the new president.

Votes by sitting members

Support and opposition by party

FISA Extension, 2012

Total current members who voted: 437 Total current members who supported the bill: 303

Three Republican senators opposed extending FISA: Lee, Murkowski, and Paul.

Votes by sitting members

Support and opposition by party

Complete list of votes

Photo: President Bush signs the FISA Act in 2008.