May 20, 2014 / by emptywheel

 

New & Improved USA Freedumb Act, with Twice the Contractors Compensated

Somewhere Booz Allen Hamilton Vice Chairman (and former NSA Director) Mike McConnell just said, “Ka-Ching.”

As I noted, the initial manager’s amendment of HR 3361 (AKA USA Freedumb Act) added compensation language to Section 215 that didn’t originally exist.

(j) COMPENSATION.—The Government shall compensate, at the prevailing rate, a person for producing tangible things or providing information, facilities, or assistance in accordance with an order issued or an emergency production required under this section.

In this latest iteration, the compensation has been expanded beyond just the telecoms to anyone else who assists.

(j) COMPENSATION.—The Government shall compensate a person for reasonable expenses incurred for—

(1) producing tangible things or providing information, facilities, or assistance in accordance with an order issued with respect to an application described in subsection (b)(2)(C) or an emergency production under subsection (i) that, to comply with subsection (i)(1)(D), requires an application described in subsection (b)(2)(C); or

(2) otherwise providing technical assistance to the Government under this section or to implement the amendments made to this section by the USA FREEDOM Act.

There’s reason to believe that contractors (AKA Booz!) does some of the triage work on the data currently. So one solution to that problem might be to move those Booz contractors — with their access directly to the raw data of Americans — over to Verizon and AT&T.

Because why shouldn’t NSA contractors be in bed together, wallowing in all your raw data.

Glad to see this bill is improving Intelligence Contractors bottom line, even if it doesn’t improve the dragnet.

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Originally Posted @ https://www.emptywheel.net/2014/05/20/new-improved-usa-freedumb-act-with-twice-the-contractors-compensated/