"A bipartisan effort to reform or shutter the federal government's massive warrantless spying regime ended, for now, in failure on Thursday morning as Congress approved a temporary renewal of the program as part of a military funding package."
"A group of Republicans led efforts in both chambers to remove a temporary reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows federal intelligence agencies to collect communications between Americans and foreigners. Congressional authorization for Section 702 was set to expire at the end of the year, but will now continue until April."
""Extending Section 702 robs Congress of the ability to make reforms now, and likely robs Congress of the opportunity to make reforms any time in the next year," Sen. Rand Paul (R–Ky.) argued on the Senate floor. "That means, once again, the intelligence agencies that ignore the constraints on their power will go unaddressed and unpunished. And the warrantless surveillance of Americans, in violation of the Bill of Rights, will continue."
A bipartisan group of 34 senators supported Paul's motion to strip the Section 702 reauthorization from the final version of the NDAA."
