Woot Woot Woot! Now this is the direction our congress needs to continue going!

From UPI

WASHINGTON, May. 11 (UPI) — The American Civil Liberties Union Friday welcomed a congressional vote to prevent what it considers illegal wiretapping by the U.S. government.
The U.S. House of Representatives late Thursday approved the proposed amendment to the House Intelligence Reauthorization Bill to prevent illegal domestic wiretapping. The amendment, by Reps. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., would reaffirm the

Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act as the only legal means of collecting electronic intelligence surveillance

. It was approved 245 to 178.

“Congress has signaled that it will not allow the president to continue the National Security Agency’s illegal eavesdropping,” said Caroline Fredrickson, director of the ACLU’s Washington Legislative Office. “Passage of the Schiff/Flake amendment is Congress drawing a line in the sand. This amendment reaffirms that FISA is the law and it needs to be followed.

“While the administration claims that its proposed FISA changes would ‘modernize’ the law, in truth they would gut the judicial oversight mechanisms carefully crafted to prevent abuse, while expanding the scope of communications that can be intercepted under FISA,” the ACLU said.

“Despite many recent hearings about ‘modernization’ and ‘technology neutrality,’ the administration has not publicly provided Congress with a single example of how current FISA standards have either prevented the intelligence community from using new technologies, or proven unworkable for the agents tasked with following them,” the group said.

“We applaud Congressmen Schiff and Flake for their work to uphold the rule of law,” said Michelle Richardson, ACLU legislative consultant. “Today is the first move towards Congress growing a backbone. We hope that the Senate will follow their lead and not be swayed by the administration and Department of Justice’s unconstitutional attempts to eviscerate FISA.”

Thursday’s vote was notable for the refusal of many House Republicans to rally to the administration’s support and go on the record in opposing it.