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Congress has sent legislation to the president reviving and remaking a disputed post-9/11 surveillance program two days after letting it temporarily expire.
The vote in the Senate Tuesday was 67-32. The House already has passed the bill, and President Barack Obama plans to sign it quickly.
The legislation will phase out, over six months, the once-secret National Security Agency bulk phone records collection program made public two years ago by agency contractor Edward Snowden.
It will be replaced by a program that keeps the records with phone companies but allows the government to search them with a warrant.
Senate Republican leaders opposed the House bill but were forced to accept it unchanged after senators rejected last-ditch attempts to amend it.
The story is being covered live by The Guardian.
Senator Dianne Feinstein, one of the most voluble defenders of the NSA in the past two years, has offered a more measured endorsement of Tuesday’s vote. She says she voted for the bill because it was “the best opportunity to quickly get [surveillance] programs back up and running.”
She emphasizes that the bill will allow “this and two other important counterterrorism programs to continue,” an allusion to Section 215 and the “lone-wolf” and “roving wiretap” provisions of the Patriot Act.
“I believe these programs are necessary to protect American lives and prevent terrorist attacks in our country,” she said in a statement.
Deputy legal director Jameel Jaffer of the ACLU, which did not back the USA Freedom Act, has nonetheless described the bill as “a milestone”.
“This is the most important surveillance reform bill since 1978, and its passage is an indication that Americans are no longer willing to give the intelligence agencies a blank check,” Jaffer said in a statement.
(Score: 4, Disagree) by gman003 on Tuesday June 02 2015, @09:44PM
As nice as it would have been to have the Patriot Act completely go away, it was unrealistic to expect that to happen overnight. Government changes at a glacial pace. The Patriot Act was just the latest in a long series of moves towards one end - and it looks like it might be the high-water mark, since the tide is swinging away from that idea.
Right now, the pro-spying side has the advantage of inertia, but they've lost popular opinion. They're winning on the first derivative, but we've won the second. It may take a while for the system to change, but it will, in time, change.
The Freedom Act didn't pass in the form we all wanted, not by a long shot. But it's better than the Patriot Act. We did win - a small victory, to be true, but victory was ours. It's not time to rest on our laurels yet - we still need to keep pushing - but let's not consider this a loss simply because we didn't annihilate our opponents, knock them down in a single blow.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 02 2015, @10:01PM
The Freedom Act didn't pass in the form we all wanted, not by a long shot. But it's better than the Patriot Act. We did win - a small victory, to be true, but victory was ours
Forgive my cynicism but that's like saying "They still beat me to within an inch of my life but at least it was with a cane and not a whip, so I think I can call that a victory over my abusers..."
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 03 2015, @01:32AM
Well, in the spirit of analogy hyperbole...
Spoken like someone who has never be imprisoned by captors who beat you regularly beat you within in an inch of your life - any change in behaviour by your captures that you initiated is a victory for self-determinism.
(Score: 5, Informative) by frojack on Tuesday June 02 2015, @10:48PM
So you'r going with Peak Spying?
The precedent is now cast in stone as far as I can tell. They will not back down from this line in the sand.
This bill extends sunsets in the Patriot act for ANOTHER 4 years.
SEC. 705. SUNSETS.
(a) USA PATRIOT Improvement And Reauthorization Act Of 2005.—Section 102(b)(1) of the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005 (50 U.S.C. 1805 note) is amended by striking “June 1, 2015” and inserting “December 15, 2019”.
(b) Intelligence Reform And Terrorism Prevention Act Of 2004.—Section 6001(b)(1) of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (50 U.S.C. 1801 note) is amended by striking “June 1, 2015” and inserting “December 15, 2019”.
Full text of the bill is here.
This is a valley, not a peak.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Informative) by frojack on Tuesday June 02 2015, @10:49PM
oops, broke my link to the full text https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/2048/text [congress.gov]
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by Common Joe on Wednesday June 03 2015, @03:56AM
Nothing concerning removal of freedoms has felt glacial since 9/11. And considering the three letter agencies basically ignored any law they wanted (including the highest law of the land) for so long, I seriously doubt anything ever stopped, even for a few hours.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 03 2015, @07:33AM
Bullshit. It advances at a blinding pace (case in point: the entire sweeping Patriot Act was enacted and signed by October 26 2001, one month and 15 days after September 11 2001). It recedes at a glacial pace.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday June 03 2015, @12:46PM
Until the People have had enough. Then it changes pretty damn quick. This is another double-dog dare from the criminal gang in DC for the People to do so.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Wednesday June 03 2015, @03:33PM
The USA PATRIOT act was first passed pretty much overnight...and it's taken us 14 years to even BEGIN to make a dent in the thing. Government moves *extremely* quickly when it's moving *against* the people; it's only when it's acting in our best interests that it becomes glacial...
(Score: 1) by unzombied on Wednesday June 03 2015, @06:44PM
This is a common saying and view. However, recall the huge US Patriot Act: introduced on October 23, 2001, read (by no one) and passed the next day by the House (357 to 66) and the day after that by the Senate (98 to 1). Two days to authorize a surveillance state. Depending on whose ends are being met, the US government can move at breakneck, typical, or glacial speed.