Bill Details
Status
Latest action
2025-01-13 - Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committee on Intelligence (Permanent Select), for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
Introduced Date
2025-01-13
Policy Area
Armed Forces and National Security
Committees
View committees (2)
Cosponsors
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AI Summary This summary was generated by AI from the bill text. AI can get information wrong.
This resolution says the House of Representatives believes the government should drop all criminal charges against Edward Snowden. It argues that Snowden helped reveal a secret government program that collected Americans’ phone records in bulk, that the program was illegal and violated privacy rights, and that his actions were in the public interest because they exposed wrongdoing. The resolution also says the people responsible for the surveillance program have not been held accountable and that whistleblowers should be protected when they uncover illegal government activity.
- It says the National Security Agency’s bulk phone-records collection program was illegal and unconstitutional.
- It says Snowden’s release of information to journalists helped expose that program and was done in the public interest.
- It notes that courts later ruled the phone-records program was not allowed under the law and may have violated the Fourth Amendment.
- It calls on the federal government to drop all charges against Snowden.
Official Summaries
This resolution expresses the sense of the House of Representatives that the National Security Agency's bulk collection telephone records program was unconstitutional and that all federal charges against Edward Snowden should be dropped. (Mr. Snowden disclosed information about the program and was subsequently charged for unauthorized disclosure of national defense information, unauthorized disclosure of classified communication intelligence, and theft of government property).
Current Full Text
[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 34 Introduced in House (IH)]
<DOC>
119th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. RES. 34
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Federal
Government should drop all charges against Edward Snowden.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
January 13, 2025
Ms. Greene of Georgia (for herself and Mr. Massie) submitted the
following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the
Judiciary, and in addition to the Permanent Select Committee on
Intelligence, for a period to be subsequently determined by the
Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall
within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Federal
Government should drop all charges against Edward Snowden.
Whereas, during a Senate hearing on March 12, 2013, James Clapper, then-Director
of National Intelligence, was questioned by Senator Ron Wyden, and was
asked whether the National Security Agency ``collect[ed] any type of
data at all on millions, or hundreds of millions of Americans'', to
which Clapper replied ``No, sir'', and added ``not wittingly'', a
response he later admitted was ``clearly erroneous'';
Whereas, in June 2013, Edward Snowden disclosed to a selective group of
journalists National Security Agency documents exposing that bulk
collection of Americans' telephone records from telecommunications
providers by the intelligence community was occurring;
Whereas, on June 21, 2013, the Department of Justice unsealed charges against
Edward Snowden for violating sections 793(d) and 798(a)(3) of the
Espionage Act and theft of government property under section 641 of
title 18, United States Code;
Whereas, on January 23, 2014, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board's
report on the National Security Agency's telephone records program found
``no instance in which the program directly contributed to the discovery
of a previously unknown terrorist plot or the disruption of a terrorist
attack'' and that the program significantly threatened and violated the
constitutional rights of the American people;
Whereas, on May 7, 2015, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second
Circuit ruled that section 215 of the Patriot Act did not authorize the
bulk collection of telephone records and therefore such collection was
unlawful;
Whereas, on September 2, 2020, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth
Circuit ruled the National Security Agency's telephone records bulk
collection program illegal and possibly unconstitutional under the
Fourth Amendment;
Whereas the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit found the
telephone records bulk collection program did not play a pivotal role in
any terrorism investigations;
Whereas those involved in the collection of Americans' telephone records have
yet to be held accountable for their illegal actions, further increasing
the danger of continued government overreach and abuse of civil
liberties; and
Whereas the United States Government must protect whistleblowers who expose
illegal and unconstitutional acts of abuse within our government: Now,
therefore, be it
Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives
that--
(1) the National Security Agency's bulk collection
telephone records program was illegal and unconstitutional;
(2) Edward Snowden's disclosure of this program to
journalists was in the public interest; and
(3) the Federal Government should drop all charges against
Edward Snowden.
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