WASHINGTON – The Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), the global voice for the tech sector’s leading companies, issued the following statement from Andy Halataei, senior vice president for government affairs, encouraging Congress to move quickly to enact the USA Freedom Act. Reps. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), John Conyers (D-Mich.), James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) and Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.); and Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) introduced the bipartisan legislation today:

"We applaud Reps. Goodlatte, Conyers, Sensenbrenner, and Nadler; and Sens. Leahy and Lee, for their commitment to finding a bicameral, bipartisan approach to reforming our government’s surveillance authorities. The USA Freedom Act, H.R. 2048, builds on the foundation laid by the House Judiciary Committee last Congress and the result is a bill that strengthens privacy protections while maintaining the interests of national security. The bill, among other things, ends indiscriminate bulk collection of data and enables the private sector to be more transparent about the orders it receives. These reforms are critical to restoring user trust across the globe in both the U.S. government and U.S.-based technology companies as well as the open and borderless Internet our innovation economy depends upon."

"We urge the House Judiciary Committee to quickly approve the USA Freedom Act and avoid harmful amendments that would jeopardize this carefully crafted bipartisan bill."

Earlier in April, ITI joined in a multi tech association letter to members of Congress encouraging lawmakers to enact needed surveillance reforms. Reforming the nation’s surveillance authorities is one of tech’s top agenda items and ITI President and CEO Dean Garfield testified on the need for reforms last year before committees in the House and Senate.

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