The Senate Is Giving More Power To The NSA, In Secret. Everyone Should Fight It. - Guardian

[karynnj]

42. This still has to pass the complete Senate and will be open to amendment

The secrecy extends just to creating the committee's bill -- and at that point, the ONLY people who vote on it are the members of the committee, who, of course, were privy to the entire process.

I assume the secrecy is more because of to write a bill that does oversight of things that are currently (and likely in the future secret), there will be information given to the committee that is classified. I once watched a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing chaired by Lugar that was part of the John Bolton confirmation hearing. A big issue dealt with some allegations concerning a former CIA asset. While many suggested that it should be closed, the chair decided that they could have it open, with everyone using a false name for the person they could not name. First, Lugar and then Kerry accidentally used the name as they each read back up information to support positions they took that included the real name. I can imagine that discussions that would want to reference actual past things might have the same problem.

However, the bill that passed the committee is no longer secret. The title is misleading as NOTHING has either house of Congress - and only by doing so could the CONGRESS give more power to the NSA.

My problem is that this is a case where they are ignoring that there are many more steps in the process which will not only not be in secret, but will be live on CSPAN! Not to mention, let's say the committee DID have an open meeting on the mark up. how many here -- speaking of the secrecy -- would have watched the live stream (or even the archived copy of it)