House Passes Bill Preserving F.B.I. Surveillance Powers (archive)
The House passed a bipartisan adjustment of key surveillance laws on Wednesday, cobbling together an unusual coalition of lawmakers to approve some new privacy protections for Americans and extend three expiring F.B.I. tools for investigating terrorism and espionage.
The vote appeared to be a breakthrough after weeks of negotiations in both the House and the Senate to prevent the surveillance tools from expiring this weekend and to address abuses identified in F.B.I. applications to wiretap a former Trump campaign adviser. Though civil libertarians in both parties opposed it as a half-measure that fell short of the kind of sweeping protections they favor, the bill passed with strong Democratic and Republican support, 278 to 136.
[...] In the Senate, Republican leaders urged their colleagues to support the House agreement and pledged to move it "as soon as possible." They were trying to line up an expedited Thursday vote, but their aides said it would depend on whether the bill's opponents would use Senate rules to slow down passage. A handful of senators have long championed broader surveillance reforms, like Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, and Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, and argue that the House changes leave Americans' privacy at risk of intrusion by government investigators.
Even if they stall the bill, once it does make it to a Senate vote, a similar bipartisan coalition of lawmakers most likely will amount to the 60 votes needed to overcome objections.
See also: House passes key surveillance bill with deadline looming
Sen. Mike Lee urges Trump to veto House FISA bill
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 12 2020, @05:26PM (3 children)
The problem is that every law that's supposed to expire never actually expires.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 12 2020, @06:07PM (1 child)
yeah, like the income tax. dumb slaves pay it like it's perfectly reasonable. fucking cowardly whores!
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Thursday March 12 2020, @09:10PM
Don't pay income tax A/C. You're a sovereign citizen so those laws don't apply to you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 13 2020, @03:44AM
Far too often, but not always. [wikipedia.org]