Patriot Act

President Barack Obama on Tuesday signed legislation that reforms a contentious government surveillance program that swept up millions of Americans’ telephone records after the bill was passed by Congress, Reuters reports. The measure, passed earlier in the day by Congress, ends a phone data collection system exposed by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden […]

The federal government’s authority to gather vast quantities of phone records in the hunt for terrorists expired at 12:01 a.m. Monday after Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, blocked an extension of the program during a dramatic Senate session on Sunday, reports The New York Times. By blocking the extension, Paul, also a 2016 Republican […]

WASHINGTON – Minutes before a midnight deadline, President Barack Obama signed into law a four-year extension of post-Sept. 11 powers to search records and conduct roving wiretaps in pursuit of terrorists. “It’s an important tool for us to continue dealing with an ongoing terrorist threat,” Obama said Friday after a meeting with French President Nicolas […]

Washington — The House of Representatives voted to extend three provisions of the Patriot Act and Intelligence Reform bill that are due to expire next month until December. The House voted 277-148 in favor of the bill, which fell short of the 284 votes needed to pass, because it was considered under a House rule […]