Breaking: Senate Passes NSA Reform Measure, Requires Warrant to Collect Metadata

No more unlimited metadata collection
Politics • Views: 22,111

The Senate has just approved a bill restoring Patriot Act provisions that lapsed on Monday. The USA Freedom Act now requires the government to obtain a targeted warrant to collect metadata — a big step in the right direction.

Washington (CNN) - The Senate approved on Tuesday a bill to reform National Security Agency domestic surveillance programs, ending a drawn-out showdown on Capitol Hill that saw counterterrorism provisions expire.

The vote was 67 to 32.

The bill, which passed the House nearly three weeks ago, now heads to President Barack Obama, who has pledged to sign the bill.

His signature will ultimately end the government’s indiscriminate collection of millions of Americans’ phone metadata, requiring the government obtain a targeted warrant to access the data instead.

“It’s historical. It’s the first major overhaul of government surveillance in decades,” said Sen. Patrick Leahy, the top Democratic sponsor of the reform measure called the USA Freedom Act.

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47 comments
1 Backwoods_Sleuth  Jun 2, 2015 2:06:17pm
2 Backwoods_Sleuth  Jun 2, 2015 2:06:55pm

Rand Paul haz a sad and Mitch McConnell is pissed.

3 Rev_Arthur_Icantbreatheing  Jun 2, 2015 2:07:41pm

I’m actually disappointed in Obama about this.

4 TedStriker  Jun 2, 2015 2:13:32pm

re: #3 Rev_Arthur_Icantbreatheing

I’m actually disappointed in Obama about this.

Why, pray tell?

5 HappyWarrior  Jun 2, 2015 2:14:22pm

Progress.

6 Kragar  Jun 2, 2015 2:15:21pm

“end the government’s indiscriminate collection of millions of Americans’ phone metadata, requiring the government obtain a targeted warrant to access the data instead”

Who will ask the huge telecom companies who will still be collecting millions of people’s metadata and using it for marketing, advertising, etc.

7 goddamnedfrank  Jun 2, 2015 2:16:03pm

re: #4 TedStriker

Why, pray tell?

He forgot to put a coversheet on his TPS report.

8 Nyet  Jun 2, 2015 2:16:39pm

Good.

9 Feline Fearless Leader  Jun 2, 2015 2:17:50pm

re: #6 Kragar

“end the government’s indiscriminate collection of millions of Americans’ phone metadata, requiring the government obtain a targeted warrant to access the data instead”

Who will ask the huge telecom companies who will still be collecting millions of people’s metadata and using it for marketing, advertising, etc.

What, and put a fetter on innocent capitalism?

10 HappyWarrior  Jun 2, 2015 2:17:57pm

re: #7 goddamnedfrank

He forgot to put a coversheet on his TPS report.

Barack, we’re going to need you to come in on Saturday umm yeah. And also Sunday.

11 Frenchy  Jun 2, 2015 2:18:02pm

Back on the Huckabee/Jenner thing, do you think Ol’ Mike has a clue that in the process of trying to demonstrate how “perverted” he clearly thinks transgender people are, he actually came off as the incredibly creepy and perverted one?

12 HappyWarrior  Jun 2, 2015 2:19:23pm

re: #11 Frenchy

Back on the Huckabee/Jenner thing, do you think Ol’ Mike has a clue that in the process of trying to demonstrate how “perverted” he clearly thinks transgender people are, he actually came off as the incredibly creepy and perverted one?

Considering the guy questions the parenting skills of two girls who are by all accounts well behaved when his own son got arrested for torturing a dog, I very much doubt it and then add to the fact that one of his best friends is Ted Nugent, a guy who actually did like em young so much that he adopted her and later married her.

13 Nyet  Jun 2, 2015 2:19:46pm

re: #11 Frenchy

Old conservative guys, can’t you please stay away from any topics dealing with sex? Kthxbai.

14 goddamnedfrank  Jun 2, 2015 2:20:04pm

re: #10 HappyWarrior

Has everyone asked him if he got the memo yet?

It’s just we’re putting new coversheets on all the TPS reports before they go out now.

15 Lord Of The Pies  Jun 2, 2015 2:21:07pm

He has no self-awareness==>

16 Kragar  Jun 2, 2015 2:21:18pm

re: #13 Nyet

17 allegro  Jun 2, 2015 2:21:46pm

re: #6 Kragar

“end the government’s indiscriminate collection of millions of Americans’ phone metadata, requiring the government obtain a targeted warrant to access the data instead”

Who will ask the huge telecom companies who will still be collecting millions of people’s metadata and using it for marketing, advertising, etc.

This. It’s why I’ve been rather bewildered by the whole controversy from the get go. All this angst over government access to data while ignoring who is actually gathering and using that info to affect every part of our lives, often quite negatively. Whenever I point that out to folks ranting on the subject I just get a confused look and “but GOVERNMENT!”

18 HappyWarrior  Jun 2, 2015 2:22:53pm

re: #15 Lord Of The Pies

He has no self-awareness==>

[Embedded content]

Uh Ben you’re part of the side that likens a bakery having to serve all couples the same cake to concentration camps. Maybe look in the mirror next time when talking about reality and phobia there of. But nice try buddy, I get it, treating transgender people as the gender they want to be seen as is “realityphobic” but thinking that gay people objecting to being discriminated against is like Nazism.

19 Kragar  Jun 2, 2015 2:23:44pm

re: #15 Lord Of The Pies

He has no self-awareness==>

[Embedded content]

20 HappyWarrior  Jun 2, 2015 2:24:04pm

re: #17 allegro

This. It’s why I’ve been rather bewildered by the whole controversy from the get go. All this angst over government access to data while ignoring who is actually gathering and using that info to affect every part of our lives, often quite negatively. Whenever I point that out to folks ranting on the subject I just get a confused look and “but GOVERNMENT!”

Well it’s kind of like how people always bellyache about government bureaucracy, a fair gripe mind you but don’t think ZOMG CAPITALISM SUCKS when they have a shitty customer service experience. Despite what cons believe, people bitch about the free market system all the time too.

21 HappyWarrior  Jun 2, 2015 2:24:30pm

re: #19 Kragar

[Embedded content]

You should ask him for his autograph and tell him that you loved him in Children of the Corn.

22 Kragar  Jun 2, 2015 2:25:56pm

re: #21 HappyWarrior

Too much like yesterday:

23 ObserverArt  Jun 2, 2015 2:26:16pm

My thinking is, all that data is out there anyway. It always has been. And to think it is not is naive in my opinion.

Is this any different than what has been been going on all along with our police departments as depicted on how many police shows for how long now?

We’ve all seen phone records brought up in trials and by police and used as either connecting criminals working together or for using as tracking criminal activities by bounces off phone towers.

The only other thing I’d add (and I need to study the details more) is I hope there is more needed to get the warrants than a simple request. There should have to be a compelling case to release the records.

In an ideal world this wouldn’t be needed. But we all know it is not.

Now for all the political posturing and fallout.

If I really want something to worry about…I’ll worry about the myriad of issues we face in our own country with our police departments. I can muster a lot more outrage about that than anything else right now.

Oh and climate issues.

24 HappyWarrior  Jun 2, 2015 2:26:47pm

Really how hard is to just accept her as a woman. It’s what she wants and it’s what she’s presenting herself as. I don’t know why a complete stranger’s choice to portray themselves as another gender bothers conservatives so much but things like income inequality, prejudice, etc don’t even register a blp to them but what do I know, I’m a libtard.

25 Fourth Football of the Apocalypse  Jun 2, 2015 2:27:57pm

re: #15 Lord Of The Pies

He has no self-awareness==>

Ben’s just mailing it in today.

26 Frenchy  Jun 2, 2015 2:29:47pm

re: #13 Nyet

I mean did we really need to know about Huckabee’s desire to surreptitiously sneak around in girls’ showers?

27 wrenchwench  Jun 2, 2015 2:31:22pm

I never metadata that I didn’t like.

/stolen off twitter

28 HappyWarrior  Jun 2, 2015 2:31:42pm

re: #22 Kragar

Too much like yesterday:

[Embedded content]

Ha true enough. Really hoping someone takes me up on my offer to photoshop him on Isaac and CCJ on Malachi. I’d do it myself but I don’t know ohw to and don’t have photoshop.

29 The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge  Jun 2, 2015 2:31:47pm

OT, but I just got an insight into how these accidental down-dings happen. A couple of refreshes ago I hit the “New Comments” button and it didn’t work. I hit it again and nothing, but just as I hit it the third time, the next comment appeared and that click was right on the “-” button. Thankfully it didn’t register, but I’ll bet that’s how it happens a lot of the time. </Captain Obvious>

30 ObserverArt  Jun 2, 2015 2:36:35pm

I get the feeling to be a conservative these days you have to be a paranoid schizophrenic.

Not a good way to go through life.

But I guess as a party they represent all the other paranoid schizophrenics.

31 HappyWarrior  Jun 2, 2015 2:39:50pm

I notice that wingnuts like Ben get pissy when someone like POTUS says that Caitlyn Jenner has courage and go hurr hurr what about the troops. And yes the troops are certainly courageous but there is definitely a courage in what Caitlyn Jenner and other transpeople do. In a world and yes country where people have been killed for being transgender, it does take some courage for Caitlyn Jenner to say “This is who I am now and this is what I have long considered myself inside.” It’s like how it’s courageous for a fire fighter to go into that burning building but it’s also courageous to speak out when you have an unpopular opinion in an environment where expressing that opinion could come at a great cost to you. Both are courageous but they’re different forms of courage and the same is here where Caitlyn Jenner is courageous for being open and comfortable with who she is as would a military member in combat and in some cases like Kristin Beck’s, people have been courageous in both fields.

32 klys (maker of Silmarils)  Jun 2, 2015 2:40:00pm

re: #27 wrenchwench

I never metadata that I didn’t like.

/stolen off twitter

So you’re telling me you’re a friend of Android?

/probably trying too hard.

33 HappyWarrior  Jun 2, 2015 2:40:48pm

re: #30 ObserverArt

I get the feeling to be a conservative these days you have to be a paranoid schizophrenic.

Not a good way to go through life.

But I guess as a party they represent all the other paranoid schizophrenics.

To me these days being a conservative seems to be about resenting people. Yes, they claim liberals resent the wealthy and whatever but I think they’re some really resentful people. They seem to resent people who are comfortable in themselves and they seem to resent modernity too.

34 Nyet  Jun 2, 2015 2:40:57pm

So it appears Stollznow and Radford settled.

35 EPR-radar  Jun 2, 2015 2:42:25pm

re: #30 ObserverArt

I get the feeling to be a conservative these days you have to be a paranoid schizophrenic.

Not a good way to go through life.

But I guess as a party they represent all the other paranoid schizophrenics.

That lets the GOP leadership off too easily. The insanity of the GOP base has been fostered for decades by a GOP establishment that saw the bad crazy as an endless source of free votes for their party.

36 wrenchwench  Jun 2, 2015 2:45:24pm

re: #32 klys (maker of Silmarils)

So you’re telling me you’re a friend of Android?

/probably trying too hard.

I follow Brent Spiner on Twitter, if that’s what you mean.

37 klys (maker of Silmarils)  Jun 2, 2015 2:46:44pm

re: #36 wrenchwench

I follow Brent Spiner on Twitter, if that’s what you mean.

[Embedded content]

YAY my reference was not totally missed!

38 Nyet  Jun 2, 2015 2:48:19pm

re: #37 klys (maker of Silmarils)

Not even by me :)

39 Lord Of The Pies  Jun 2, 2015 2:50:04pm
Ben Shapiro of the Corn
40 A Cranky One  Jun 2, 2015 2:51:31pm
Didn’t you get the memo?
41 Great White Snark  Jun 2, 2015 2:53:22pm

re: #23 ObserverArt

Did a Page on that. The law and fundamental function of GPS in our cars, surveillance cameras, our tablets and phones puts the data out there. No escaping that. But what we can do is regulate how the data can be used, by whom and under what circumstances.

The stronger the tech gets the stronger the rules need to be.

42 Frenchy  Jun 2, 2015 2:55:00pm

re: #39 Lord Of The Pies

*dies*

43 GlutenFreeJesus  Jun 2, 2015 3:01:15pm

re: #13 Nyet

Old conservative guys, can’t you please stay away from any topics dealing with sex? Kthxbai.

Ahem.

44 ObserverArt  Jun 2, 2015 3:02:30pm

re: #35 EPR-radar

That lets the GOP leadership off too easily. The insanity of the GOP base has been fostered for decades by a GOP establishment that saw the bad crazy as an endless source of free votes for their party.

I’m not softballing the GOP and the leadership. I am saying I think some of the actual politicians in the GOP are suffering the mental illness too.

Whether they are in leadership positions i don’t know, but certainly some of the newer members in Congress seem to actually be paranoid schizophrenics.

45 HappyWarrior  Jun 2, 2015 3:03:14pm

re: #44 ObserverArt

I’m not softballing the GOP and the leadership. I am saying I think some of the actual politicians in the GOP are suffering the mental illness too.

Whether they are in leadership positions i don’t know, but certainly some of the newer members in Congress seem to actually be paranoid schizophrenics.

Gohmert is definitely mentally ill. Huckabee I think too and Bachmann.

46 Rev_Arthur_Icantbreatheing  Jun 2, 2015 4:17:04pm

re: #4 TedStriker

Why, pray tell?

Sorry this is way late, but I think Obama has been a disappointment on national security/privacy issues. I still think Glenn Greenwald is a privileged asshole, but I don’t like everything Obama has done.

47 Decatur Deb  Jun 2, 2015 5:40:15pm

re: #27 wrenchwench

I never metadata that I didn’t like.

/stolen off twitter

Who stole it from Fame.


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