VotedBy VotedBy ⌕
Election Day · Tue, Nov 3See how your members of Congress voted →

H.R. 4570 · 109th Congress

National Security Letter Judicial and Congressional Oversight Act

Key: what the circles and colors mean

Each circle is a bill. The ring fills as it moves through Congress:

IntroducedPassed one chamberPassed both chambersBecame law (gold)Resolution agreed to (full, dark)Failed or vetoed (gray)

Under the number: the Yea · Nay count of its final (or latest) recorded vote. On a member's page, the small badge is how that member voted: Y Yea / Aye, N Nay / No, P Present, – Not voting.

Gold and violet are only for Yea and Nay; they never mean a party. A member's party is the letter on their photo.

Never voted on. It didn't reach a floor vote before the 109th Congress ended, so it expired. A bill has to be introduced again to be considered in a new Congress.

12 cosponsors · 12 D

9 signed on when it was introduced; the rest joined later. Cosponsors who withdrew aren't shown.

National Security Letter Judicial and Congressional Oversight Act - Prohibits a national security letter from issuing unless a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court or a designated U.S.

What it does: CRS summary · Introduced in House · Dec 16, 2005

National Security Letter Judicial and Congressional Oversight Act - Prohibits a national security letter from issuing unless a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court or a designated U.S. Magistrate Judge finds that: (1) the information sought is relevant to an authorized investigation to protect against international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities; (2) such an investigation of a U.S. person is not conducted soley upon the basis of activities protected by the first amendment to the Constitution; and (3) there are specific and articulable facts giving reason to believe that the information sought pertains to a foreign power or an agent of a foreign power.

Requires the court established under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) to establish an electronic system for the submission of documents and other information relating to such proceedings, and for the issuance of orders relating to national security letters.

Expresses the sense of Congress that, in the case of a challenge to a nondisclosure requirement of a national security letter, a certification by the Attorney General or other appropriate head or deputy head of a federal department, agency, or instrumentality that disclosure of such a letter may endanger U.S. national security or interfere with diplomatic relations should not be considered conclusive evidence but only a rebuttable presumption that such disclosure would do so.

Directs the Attorney General to establish minimization and destruction procedures to ensure that information obtained pursuant to a national security letter regarding persons no longer of interest in an authorized investigation is destroyed.

Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov

About this bill and sources

Official title: National Security Letter Judicial and Congressional Oversight Act

Latest action (Feb 16, 2006): Referred to the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security.

Policy area: Law · Origin: House · Introduced: Dec 16, 2005

Official page on Congress.gov · Bill text (GovInfo) · Status record (XML)

No recorded floor vote found.