On June 5, 2013, a door opened. We gained our first glimpse of the true scope and magnitude of the United States’ surveillance operations and the steps needed to reform them.
The Senate will soon vote on whether or not to walk through that door and pass the USA Freedom Act, a bill that would end one of the worst abuses of the NSA’s surveillance authority. Senator Harry Reid has filed a cloture motion on the bill, which means that, if 60 senators vote to move forward, the bill will hit the senate floor next week. President Obama needs to act now and send a clear, public message to the senate: it must rein in the NSA and pass the USA Freedom Act.
[This op-ed was published in Wired. Go here to read it in full.]