House approves measure ending NSA bulk phone data collection program
A bill that would end the National Security Agency’s mass collection of phone records won broad support in the U.S. House on Wednesday, but key Republican leaders in the Senate remain unconvinced of the need for reform as a crucial deadline approaches.
The House approved the USA Freedom Act, which would keep vast troves of phone “metadata” out of government hands as well as make other revisions to the federal government’s surveillance practices, on a 338-to-88 afternoon vote. Similar legislation was adopted last year in the House before stalling in the Senate.
Ahead of the vote Wednesday, Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) said the bill would “protect our foreign intelligence capabilities” and called on the Senate to follow suit.
“All I know is, these programs expire at the end of this month. They are critically important to keep Americans safe,” he said. “The House is going to act, and I would hope the Senate would act soon as well.”
But Republican Senate leaders want the agency to maintain its ability to gather the records in the hopes of preventing a terrorist attack. On the other extreme are lawmakers who want the law underpinning the NSA program to expire altogether.
Congress must act by June?1 or the NSA’s existing authority, under Section 215 of the 2001 Patriot Act, lapses, and along with it not only the phone records program but also other intelligence authorities that the government says are crucial to detecting and preventing terrorist attacks.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-house-will-vote-to-reform-nsa-phone-spying-what-will-the-senate-do/2015/05/13/31be97aa-f97f-11e4-9030-b4732caefe81_story.html?wpisrc=al_alert
