US Senate prepares to approve USA Freedom Act, lets original Patriot Act internal spying provisions expire

Jun 1, 2015 08:17 GMT  ·  By

The NSA has lost most of its power after the US Senate failed to extend some of its legal powers, including its infamous bulk phone data collection program, via The New York Times.

As we previously reported two weeks ago when the US House of Representatives opted to pass the USA Freedom Act, the original program was doomed unless some sort of agreement was reached in the US Senate.

Faced with the option of voting the USA Freedom Act and extending three of the Patriot Act provisions, one of which covered the bulk data collection program, the Senate voted 77 to 17 for the first option.

Legally, the NSA lost most of its spying capabilities

This means the NSA is now legally prohibited from collecting any kind of bulk phone data from its own citizens.

The other two Patriot Act provisions will also prevent US internal investigation agencies like the FBI to tap conversations for any person suspected of terrorism without being affiliated to a terrorist group, or to seize personal records and assets from suspects and their associates.

Since all bills need to pass two separate votes in the Senate to be approved, Senator Paul Rand of Kentucky delayed the second vote for this week, and by doing so cut all the legal powers from the original Patriot Act provisions which expired midnight May 31, 2015.

USA Freedom Act will replace some parts of the USA Patriot Act

Most likely, the USA Freedom Act will replace these provisions of the older Patriot Act, a set of laws put in place after the 9/11 attacks. The Patriot Act was supposed to be in place for 10 years, but it was extended for four more years in 2011.

After Edward Snowden's revelations, public outcry forced the Government to think twice before going forward with the original provisions.

The USA Freedom Act isn't considered a much securer solution, but compared to the Patriot Act, it severely limits the NSA's powers, while also stopping the bulk data collection on all US citizens.

According to this new bill, user data will only be collected by mobile providers, and made available to intelligence agencies under a warrant issued by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court.