President Obama said in a press conference on Friday that he would pursue reforms to make the legal proceedings in the National Security Agency surveillance dispute more open and fair.
The president, pictured left with Jay Leno last week, said he would look into ways to make the process more balanced, such as including in the secret court proceedings a lawyer assigned to advocate privacy laws, according to the Wall Street Journal. Many Democratic senators have made such suggestions for reforms to the court.
Obama also announced his intention tighten Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which permits the government to obtain the phone records of millions of Americans. A group of outside professionals, such as former intelligence officials and civil liberties and privacy advocates, will evaluate the program and suggest reforms by the end of the year.
“It’s not enough for me, as president, to have confidence in these programs. The American people need to have confidence in them as well,” the President said.
The NSA debacle has shifted Congress’s and Obama’s attention from the immigration bill that the President hoped would pass this month, the Washington Post. There was also some anticipation of a deficit agreement with Republicans and changes to gun control laws.
Image: White House Twitter