Skip to main content

The NSA begins to shut down its phone surveillance program after Senate gridlock

The National Security Agency (NSA) has begun the process of winding down its controversial bulk collection of U.S. phone records after the Senate failed to agree on a way to temporarily extend the surveillance program, which expires at midnight June 1. The Senate, which debated into the early hours of Saturday, is now on a weeklong recess and will reconvene in a rare Sunday session on May 31.

Just hours after the Senate failed to reach a deal, the NSA began the process of shuttering its surveillance program, according to the Los Angeles Times. “The process has begun,” an administration official said Saturday.

Recommended Videos

Officials said the NSA program, which collected data such as the number dialed, duration, date, and time for most phone calls made by Americans, is complex and will require several days to shut down.

The Senate impasse also threatens other parts of the Patriot Act, including one allowing the FBI to collect business records in terrorism investigations and another allowing the FBI to listen in on every phone used by a terrorism suspect without getting separate court warrants for each one.

This news comes after the House of Representatives voted on May 13 to overwhelmingly approve a bipartisan bill to put an end to the NSA’s bulk phone data collection program. The bill was meant to curtail the NSA’s collection and access to data, calling for the agency to get court orders from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to access phone records held by telecoms and use specific search terms to limit its access to relevant records.

The conflicted Senate was not expected to have such a singular mind on the matter, so it’s no surprise that it voted 57-42 against the House bill known as the USA Freedom Act. It needed 60 votes in the Senate to pass through.

A subsequent bill to extend the program for two months also failed, as did a series of other agreements to pass even shorter extensions (including a proposed one-day extension) for the NSA’s surveillance program, according to The New York Times.

Earlier this month, the second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan ruled that the NSA’s bulk collection of phone records is illegal under federal law. This means that Section 215 of the Patriot Act cannot be used to justify the program.

Jason Hahn
Former Contributor
Jason Hahn is a part-time freelance writer based in New Jersey. He earned his master's degree in journalism at Northwestern…
A new Samsung phone just leaked, and it’s a lot different from the Galaxy S24 Ultra
Samsung Galaxy A06 render.

Samsung Galaxy A06 render. GizNext via Onleaks

A new Samsung phone has just gotten a pretty substantial leak, and surprisingly, it isn’t a flagship. The leak comes from GizNext (via Onleaks), which has revealed everything there is to know about the Samsung Galaxy A06 in painstaking detail. Notably, this is a fairly entry-level phone that’s expected to have budget pricing characteristics of the Galaxy A-series and serve as a successor to the Galaxy A05.

Read more
I used the CMF Phone 1, and it’s 2024’s best smartphone bargain
A person holding the CMF Phone 1.

You’ve got to stick with me for a bit here, as there’s quite a lot of background to go through before we get to the meat of what makes this new Android phone such a bargain. The phone is the CMF Phone 1, and while you may never have heard of CMF, you will have heard of Nothing -- the company co-founded by Carl Pei of OnePlus fame. CMF’s full name is CMF by Nothing, and it's Nothing’s sub-brand responsible for very reasonably priced but little-known mobile products.

If, like me, you’ve barely paid CMF much attention (if any) until now, then it’s time to change that. Why? The CMF Phone 1 is the sub-brand’s first smartphone, and it’s quite simply the bargain of the year.
Shockingly good specs

Read more
The iPhone will never be the same after this
Someone holding an iPhone 15 Pro Max with the screen on and showing the home screen.

iOS 18 is a big and exciting iPhone update. From the home screen customization tools to the new Control Center and the various improvements to iMessage, there's plenty to be excited about. I know I am!

However, there's also an ugly side to iOS 18. A big part of this update includes Apple's long-awaited AI features, which Apple refers to as Apple Intelligence. What we've seen so far of Apple Intelligence looks quite promising. Unfortunately, while these AI features are included in the iOS 18 update, they'll only be available for a select group of people.

Read more