| Submit your comments on this article |
| Government |
| Congress Sends NSA Phone-Records Bill to President |
| 2015-06-03 |
| [Ayepee] Congress approved sweeping changes Tuesday to surveillance laws enacted after the Sept. 11 attacks, eliminating the National Security Agency's disputed bulk phone-records collection program and replacing it with a more restrictive measure to keep the records in phone companies' hands. Two days after Congress let the phone-records collection and several other anti-terror programs expire, the Senate's 67-32 vote sent the legislation to President Barack Obama, who signed it Tuesday night. "This legislation will strengthen civil liberty safeguards and provide greater public confidence in these programs," Obama said in a statement. Officials said it could take at least several days to restart the collection. The legislation will revive most of the programs the Senate had allowed to lapse in a dizzying collision of presidential politics and national security policy. But the authorization will undergo major changes, the legacy of agency contractor Edward Snowden's explosive revelations two years ago about domestic spying by the government. In an unusual shifting of alliances, the legislation passed with the support of Obama and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, but over the strong opposition of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. McConnell failed to persuade the Senate to extend the current law unchanged, and came up short in a last-ditch effort Tuesday to amend the House version, as nearly a dozen of his own Republicans abandoned him in a series of votes. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #3 I'd like to send him MY phone bill. |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2015-06-03 12:11 |
| #2 My first glance saw the headline as 'NSA Sends Phone Records to President.' |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2015-06-03 11:48 |
| #1 "This legislation will strengthen civil liberty safeguards and provide greater public confidence in these programs" Much like slapping a coat of paint over black mold. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2015-06-03 11:46 |