Either Way, No More NSA Collection Of US Phone Records

[Purveyor]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- However Congress resolves its impasse over government surveillance, this much is clear: The National Security Agency will ultimately be out of the business of collecting and storing Americans' calling records.

Aiming for passage Tuesday afternoon, the Senate on Monday prepared to make modest changes to a House bill that would end the collection while preserving other surveillance authorities. But while Congress debated, the law authorizing the collection expired at midnight Sunday.

The NSA had stopped gathering the records from phone companies hours before the deadline. And other post-9/11 surveillance provisions considered more effective than the phone-call collection program also lapsed, leading intelligence officials to warn of critical gaps.

The legislation now before the Senate, known as the USA Freedom Act, would reauthorize the surveillance but would phase out NSA phone records collection over time. It passed the House overwhelmingly and is backed by President Barack Obama. Sen. Rand Paul, who doesn't believe it goes far enough in restricting the government, objected anew on Monday, but he can't stop a vote to end debate scheduled for Tuesday morning.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- However Congress resolves its impasse over government surveillance, this much is clear: The National Security Agency will ultimately be out of the business of collecting and storing Americans' calling records.

Aiming for passage Tuesday afternoon, the Senate on Monday prepared to make modest changes to a House bill that would end the collection while preserving other surveillance authorities. But while Congress debated, the law authorizing the collection expired at midnight Sunday.

The NSA had stopped gathering the records from phone companies hours before the deadline. And other post-9/11 surveillance provisions considered more effective than the phone-call collection program also lapsed, leading intelligence officials to warn of critical gaps.

The legislation now before the Senate, known as the USA Freedom Act, would reauthorize the surveillance but would phase out NSA phone records collection over time. It passed the House overwhelmingly and is backed by President Barack Obama. Sen. Rand Paul, who doesn't believe it goes far enough in restricting the government, objected anew on Monday, but he can't stop a vote to end debate scheduled for Tuesday morning.

MORE...

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CONGRESS_SURVEILLANCE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-06-01-17-17-02

[Warpy]

1. Now what are they going to do with that enormous complex in Utah?

I don't see them mothballing it. Maybe they can sell it to the Mormons for planet wide record keeping of begats and which dead have been baptized in absentia and which haven't.

[bananas]

2. They'll privatize it.

"How Private Contractors Have Created a Shadow NSA"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016123542

[sabrina 1]

3. Thank you Edward Snowden!

It's a start!

[DiverDave]

4. They will do what they want.

Just deeper black is all.
Nothing changes.

[magical thyme]

5. Oh boy! Nobody's listening in any more! We can all go back to our nefarious phone and intertube

discussions now...

Of course they're still listening in...as others wrote, just deeper and darker, with a new name. Like maybe the USA Freedom Act.

USA FREEDOM Act - H.R.2048

The Senate is scheduled to work on this bill that would reform the authorities of the Federal Government to require the production of certain business records, conduct electronic surveillance, use pen registers and trap and trace devices, and use other forms of information gathering for foreign intelligence, counterterrorism, and criminal purposes, and for other purposes.

[drray23]

6. not convinced. i would not put it past them to lie to congress and keep doing it. nt.