PCLOB Releases Recommendation Assessment Report

To mark the one-year anniversary of its report on the Section 215 telephone records program and the six-month anniversary of itsreport on the Section 702 surveillance program, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board has released an assessment of the implementation of its recommendations. In its two reports, the Board made a total of 22 recommendations directed at the Executive Branch, Congress, and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. In its assessment, the Board discusses the status of each recommendation’s implementation. Key findings include:​

• Overall, the Administration has accepted virtually all recommendations in the Board’s Section 702 report and has made substantial progress toward implementing many of them, while also accepting most of the recommendations in the Board’s Section 215 report.
• The Administration has not implemented the Board’s recommendation to halt the NSA’s telephone records program, which it could do at any time without congressional involvement. Instead, the Administration has continued the program, with modifications, while seeking legislation to create a new system for government access to telephone records under Section 215.
• The Administration has made substantial progress in implementing some of the Board’s recommendations regarding transparency.
• The Administration has not yet developed, as the Board recommended, a methodology for gauging the value of its counterterrorism programs.

The Board’s assessment includes a Fact Sheet, which provides a concise summary of the Board’s conclusions about the implementation of its recommendations, and a Table summarizing the Board’s recommendations by subject matter.