Ron Wyden

McManus: Head-in-the-sand Congress

2013-06-12 00:00:00

Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) , a former chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, is hopping mad. Sensenbrenner considers himself the father of the Patriot Act, the 2001 law that gave the federal government new powers to investigate potential...

Senators introduce bill requiring greater disclosure of NSA programs

2013-06-11 08:50:00

WASHINGTON – A bipartisan group of senators is introducing new legislation that they say will provide greater transparency of National Security Agency surveillance programs, the first significant legislative response to the revelation of the...

Edward Snowden: Hero or criminal?

2013-06-11 00:00:00

Over the weekend, as Americans were still absorbing double-barreled revelations about the extent of the National Security Agency's electronic surveillance, the source of that information outed himself. Edward J. Snowden, a 29-year-old former employee of a...

Washington's dark secrets

2013-06-11 00:00:00

President Obama's response to the troubling news of indiscriminate government collection of communication information was meant to be reassuring: The NSA is operating under supervision by all three branches of government, he assured us. Even if this...

U.S. loses millions on coal leases, inspector general report says

2013-06-12 17:16:00

WASHINGTON -- The Interior Department is losing tens of millions of dollars in revenue annually because it leases public land for coal mining at rock-bottom prices, according to a report by the agency’s inspector general The report focuses on coal...

Not just Verizon? Secret NSA effort to gather phone data is years old

2013-06-06 08:54:00

WASHINGTON -- The massive National Security Agency collection of telephone records disclosed Wednesday was part of a continuing program that has been in effect nonstop since 2006, according to the two top leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee....

NSA, Verizon surveillance program: What you need to know

2013-06-06 10:45:00

The government has secretly amassed an enormous database of telephone call records. Here are the answers to some questions about the program: Q: What information does the government have? A: It has collected the equivalent of phone logs showing...

Government is tracking all U.S. phone calls

2013-06-06 19:13:00

WASHINGTON — The federal government has amassed a database for at least seven years containing details on virtually every telephone call made within the United States or between this country and telephones abroad, officials said Thursday,...

Internet sales tax bill advances, but final Senate passage delayed

2013-04-25 16:25:00

WASHINGTON – The Senate on Thursday failed to pass bipartisan legislation that would allow states to collect sales taxes from larger Internet retailers, but the bill cleared a key procedural hurdle and is on track for approval after lawmakers return...

House passes CISPA, sets up showdown with White House and Senate

2013-04-18 12:57:00

The House of Representatives passed a controversial cybersecurity bill as expected on Thursday, moving toward a possible confrontation with the Senate and White House. The�Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act of 2013, or CISPA, passed by a vote...

Senate OKs Sally Jewell as new Interior secretary

2013-04-10 15:36:00

WASHINGTON - The Senate approved REI Chief Executive Sally Jewell Wednesday as the new secretary of the Interior by a vote of 87 to 11. � Jewell, 58, had faced tough questioning by some Senate Republicans during her confirmation hearing in early March....

States try to tackle 'secret money' in politics

2013-05-02 19:30:00

WASHINGTON — Early last month, state lawyers and election officials around the country dialed into a conference call to talk about how to deal with the flood of secret money that played an unprecedented role in the 2012 election. The discussion,...

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) have unveiled a bipartisan disclosure bill.

2013-05-02 19:25:00