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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: 2) by darkfeline on Wednesday June 03 2015, @01:05AM
Can someone explain what exactly is happening to those of us that don't understand politicalese?
What was the point of the Freedom Act? Is data collection getting shut down or not? From what I read I thought the Freedom Act was supposed to stop data collection? Is this a step forward, a step backward, or a step sideways?
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 03 2015, @02:36AM
Data collection continues but the data is held by the telcos who pretty much already have it anyway for their own purposes including selling it to marketing companies, but now they get the bonus false legitimacy of claiming to be legally required to keep it.
(Score: 4, Informative) by TLA on Wednesday June 03 2015, @02:37AM
no, it's transferring the collection bit off to the telcos, the NSA still gets access via John Doe warrants. Because of the six month transition clause, the NSA gets to continue to collect data until December, by which time the telcos should be set up and ready to pick up. The transition clause is also the NSA's get out of jail free card as far as the 4th Amendment is concerned, as they're now operating under THAT rather than the expired sections of PATRIOT.
Excuse me, I think I need to reboot my horse. - NCommander
(Score: 1) by redneckmother on Wednesday June 03 2015, @03:27PM
Two steps forward, one step back.
Mas cerveza por favor.