On Sunday the legislature allowed parts of the Patriot Act to expire and aren’t putting them back into play until some changes are made. As of Tuesday night, President Obama signed a number of restrictions into law.

Lawmakers gathered Sunday to try and beat the midnight deadline, but were not successful. Some Senators were upset that the clock ran out. “We should not have allowed them to expire, we've known for 4 years this day was coming,” said Senator Mike Lee, Republican from Utah. Even the White House stepped in with a comment. “The Senate's failure to act introduces unnecessary risk to our country and to our citizens,” said Josh Earnest, White House Press Secretary.

According to a CNN/ORC poll, 61% of Americans want to see the Patriot Act restored. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said allowing parts of the act to expire was a “serious lapse” in national security.

The most controversial parts to expire were phone metadata collection. Thus far, the National Security Agency has been allowed to collect bulk phone-data and keep the records without the need for warrants. The agency was established under President George W. Bush in 2006 after he signed the Patriot Act into law. The act was originally created to fight against potential terrorist attacks after 9/11.

The newest bill limiting the NSA’s surveillance power is the USA Freedom Act. President Obama signed it into law on Tuesday night. This act requires phone companies to retain phone metadata, rather than the NSA. Officials would then need targeted warrants in order to retrieve the data. Some senator’s strongly support this decision. “We are not collecting the information of spies, we are not collecting the information of terrorists, we are collecting all Americans' records all of the time,” said Senator Rand Paul, Republican from Kentucky.

The new provisions would also require targeted wiretaps on terrorist suspects, rather than roaming wiretaps.


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