S. 3515 (112th): Protect America’s Privacy Act of 2012

Introduced:
Aug 02, 2012 (112th Congress, 2011–2013)
Sponsor:
Sen. Jeff Merkley [D-OR]
Status:
Died (Referred to Committee)

The bill’s title was written by the bill’s sponsor. S. stands for Senate bill.

(About Ads | Go Ad-Free for $5)
Status

This bill was introduced on August 2, 2012, in a previous session of Congress, but was not enacted.

Progress
Introduced Aug 02, 2012
Referred to Committee Aug 02, 2012
Cosponsors
2 cosponsors (2D) (show)
Committees

Senate Judiciary

The committee chair determines whether a bill will move past the committee stage.

Full Title

A bill to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 to provide additional protections for privacy and for other purposes.

Summary

No summaries available.

Text

Read Bill Text »

Last updated Aug 02, 2012.
20 pages

Primary Source

View on THOMAS (The Library of Congress)

GovTrack gets most information from THOMAS, which is updated generally one day after events occur. Activity since the last update may not be reflected here.

Citation

Click a format for a citation suggestion:

GovTrack’s Bill Summary

We don’t have a summary available yet.

Library of Congress Summary

The summary below was written by the Congressional Research Service, which is a nonpartisan division of the Library of Congress.

8/2/2012--Introduced.
Protect America's Privacy Act of 2012 - Amends the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) to prohibit the targeting of a person outside the United States when a significant purpose of the acquisition is to acquire the communications of a particular, known person reasonably believed to be within the United States, except in accordance with FISA title I (Electronic Surveillance). Prohibits receiving into evidence any information obtained in an acquisition against any U.S. person for which a deficiency in the procedures for acquiring such information is identified by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Provides an exception if the government corrects any deficiencies so identified, at that time permitting use or disclosure under such minimization procedures as the Court shall establish for such purposes.
Prohibits a communication from being acquired under FISA title VII if the government knows before or at the time of acquisition that the communication is to, or from, a person reasonably believed to be in the United States. Provides exceptions when there is reason to believe that:
(1) the communication concerns international terrorist activities directed against the United States or activities in preparation therefor;
(2) the target reasonably believed to be outside the United States is an agent of a foreign group engaged in international terrorism or activities in preparation therefor; or
(3) the acquisition is necessary to prevent death or serious bodily harm.
Requires the government to separately handle or otherwise manage a communication acquired under title VII to, or from, a person reasonably believed to be in the United States so that there shall be no access to the communication, except in accordance with title I or provisions of this paragraph.
Allows the access to, and use of, such acquisition for up to seven days if there are conditions similar to the above exceptions.
Requires annual audits from the Inspectors General of the Department of Defense (DOD) and Department of Justice (DOJ) concerning implementation of, and compliance with, this paragraph.

House Republican Conference Summary

The summary below was written by the House Republican Conference, which is the caucus of Republicans in the House of Representatives.

No summary available.

House Democratic Caucus Summary

The House Democratic Caucus does not provide summaries of bills.

So, yes, we display the House Republican Conference’s summaries when available even if we do not have a Democratic summary available. That’s because we feel it is better to give you as much information as possible, even if we cannot provide every viewpoint.

We’ll be looking for a source of summaries from the other side in the meanwhile.

The bill contains the following citations to other parts of U.S. law:

United States Code

The United States Code is the compilation of permanent laws enacted by Congress. Temporary and other non-permanent laws do not appear in the United States Code. (About half of the United States Code is the law itself, called positive law. The other half is merely a compilation of the laws but has no legal significance.)

Other Citations

  • 18 U.S.C. Chapter 119