Montgomery County Civil Rights Coalition

Protecting civil rights & liberties everywhere by protecting them at home 6930 Carroll Avenue Suite 413 Takoma Park Maryland 20912 mococivilrights@gmail.com www.mococivilrights.wordpress.com

The Honorable Chris Van Hollen United States House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515 August 2, 2013 Dear Representative Van Hollen: The Montgomery County Civil Rights Coalition and other organizations listed below are writing to express our profound disappointment for your vote of nay on the Amash/Conyers amendment to the Defense Appropriations bill. This was a simple amendment, but one which got it right, in our opinion: None of the funds made available by this Act may be used to execute a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court order pursuant to section 501 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1861) that does not include the following sentence: This Order limits the collection of any tangible things (including telephone numbers dialed, telephone numbers of incoming calls, and the duration of calls) that may be authorized to be collected pursuant to this Order to those tangible things that pertain to a person who is the subject of an investigation described in section 501 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1861). We have read your response to constituents who have contacted you about this vote, as well as your letter to President Obama and, frankly, find both unpersuasive. As you surely know, the recently revealed NSA programs are gross incursions of privacy for all Americans; there is no real oversight of these programs by the FISA court or by Congress; and representatives of the Administration have flat-out lied to Congress and the public about them. Given these facts, we expected that you would represent your constituents by voting to cut funding for these programs, as did 111 other Democrats, including three Democrats from Maryland. We can find no excuse for this vote. Sincerely, ACLU Montgomery County CAIR Maryland CASA de Maryland Defending Dissent Foundation Montgomery County Civil Rights Coalition Montgomery County Progressive Alliance Montgomery County Young Democrats Pax Christi Montgomery Peace Action Montgomery Progressive Neighbors Veterans For Peace DC Area Chapter 016