Last month, Tampa area Democratic Congresswoman Kathy Castor surprised some observers by voting against a measure in the House that would have defunded the National Security Agency's blanket collection of telephone records; the measure barely lost, 217-205. Later it was reported that Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi had rallied many in her caucus to oppose the attempt by Rep. Justin Amash, R-Michigan, despite their criticism of the NSA in the wake of revelations unveiled by whistleblower Edward Snowden.
But Castor told CL today that she "strongly" supports reforming the NSA, beginning with the collection of so-called metadata, where phone companies send lists to the government of who called whom and when.
She also wants to see reform within the FISA court — the secret court that rules whether the government can pursue certain surveillance activities.
"It's not appropriate that it's just the chief justice of the Supreme Court that makes the appointments to the FISA court," said Castor, adding that she also supports requiring an advocate for civil liberties to be part of any FISA court discussion.
Castor defended her vote against the Amash amendment, however, saying "it was not appropriate to just say 'defund' and end it all."
"That would have been a good symbolic vote and I could have done that, but the tougher assignment is going to be really getting into how it works, making sure we protect American civil liberties without damaging the necessary national security mission that is very important," she said.
Two Tampa Bay area Republicans in the House — Polk County's Dennis Ross and Sarasota's Vern Buchanan — supported the Amash amendment, illustrating that the concern for civil liberties — especially in the wake of Snowden's revelations — has transcended party lines.
Ross recently wrote to House Speaker John Boehner about garnering support for his own take on NSA surveillance in a bill he's introduced called the Relevancy Act, which would permanently end the NSA's blanket collection of Americans' personal information.
"My bill would focus the scope of metadata collection in two ways," Ross wrote Boehner. "First, it would require the investigation to be of a specific person or group of persons. Second, the Relevancy Act requires the tangible things sought to be related to a person that is subject to an investigation."
After more than six weeks of being marooned inside a Moscow airport transit lounge, Snowden won temporary asylum in Russia last week, something that angers Congresswoman Castor, who said the U.S. has serious issues with their former, longtime Cold War nemesis.
"I don't see him as a patriot. He went about it the wrong way," said Castor of the former Booz Allen Hamilton contractor. She went on to say that the U.S. has a ongoing, low-grade cyber war with Russia, as well as a proxy war with Vladimir Putin's government in regards to Syria.
"While the Russian people and the American people might be on very friendly terms, there are very significant problems with the Russian government and what they do on cyber spying of American businesses. I don't know why Mr. Snowden thinks that's a great place to stay," Castor said.