"The NSA Nerve Center at Fort Meade is in the Lawmaker's cross-hairs.
No electricity, no water is the call-to-arms for lawmakers who are fed up with the National Security Agency (NSA.) A law that would shut off power and water to the NSA was introduced by eight Republicans in the 141-member Maryland House of Delegates last Thursday, or deny the electronic spy agency ""material support, participation or assistance in any form"" from the states, political subdivisions or companies with state contracts.
Additionally, state or local officials ignoring the NSA sanctions world be fired, local governments refusing to comply would lost state grant funds and companies would be barred, in perpetuity, from state contracts.
The proposed bill deprives the NSA facilities public utilities, like, water and electricity, and may make spying difficult. It would also ban the use of NSA-derived evidence in state courts and prevent state universities from partnering with the NSA on research.
It may also give the American public back some of its privacy, of which, the NSA reacted with ""No Comment.""
On January 2nd, The Washington Post reported the agency signed a contract with Howard County, MD for water to cool a computer data center under construction at Fort Meade. The new bill would kill the deal and save taxpayers $2 million a year, collectively, plus the 5 million gallons of water a day.
This latest proposal is in a series of state bills aiming to cut off the NSA - one piece at a time for ignoring the Fourth Amendment (collecting of phone and internet records.)
The Tenth Amendment Center, along with the Bill of Rights Defense Committee spearheaded the latest onslaught against the NSA by launching the ""OffNow"" coalition last year seeking to cut off water to the NSA's newly finished Utah Data Center.
Although there hasn't been any legislation in Utah, lawmakers in Arizona, California, Tennessee, Washing and a few other states are using the Tenth Amendment Center's model for bills regarding their own grievances with the NSA.
And in better news, several of those bills were introduced by bipartisan sponsorship. Arizona leads the pack with the most successful to date, winning 4-2 approval by the state Senate Government and Environment Committee on Feb. 3rd.
The original story broke with Edward Snowden, currently a Nobel Peace Prize candidate, former CIA employee and whistle-blower, currently living under asylum in Russia."
