A federal court has again renewed an order allowing the National Security Agency to continue its bulk collection of Americans’ phone records, a decision that comes more than a year after President Obama pledged to end the controversial program.
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court approved this week a government request to keep the NSA’s mass surveillance of U.S. phone metadata operating until June 1, coinciding with when the legal authority for the program is set to expire in Congress.
The extension is the fifth of its kind since Obama said he would effectively end the Snowden-exposed program as it currently exists during a major policy speech in January 2014. Obama and senior administration officials have repeatedly insisted that they will not act alone to end the program without Congress.
More than a year’s worth of efforts to reform the NSA stalled last year, as the Senate came two votes short of advancing the USA Freedom Act in November. The measure failed to overcome a filibuster by Republicans, many of whom warned any limitation imposed on the NSA could bolster terrorist groups like the Islamic State.
Amid the congressional inaction, the FISA Court has now renewed the NSA’s most controversial spying program five times—in March, June, September, December and now February—since Obama delivered his pledge to end it in its current form.
Some NSA critics and even some lawmakers, such as Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, have called for Obama to end the program unilaterally.
It remains unclear if there is a path forward for substantial NSA reform in Congress, leaving surveillance critics to worry lawmakers may ultimately pass a clean reauthorization of the Patriot Act.
Source : National Journal
